On Hope

“TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.” -Howard Zinn

Compassion Fatigue

I once read that a great way to grow your sense of compassion for another person is to imagine that we have all led countless lives, in one of which this other person might have protected you as your mother when you were a helpless infant, and you may have done the same for this person.

As a citizen of the United States, I worry about compassion wearing out for our country as a whole. When the news is reporting crises going on all over the world, and it seems like we are expected to do something in every case, how do we decide when and how to act? Sometimes it feels like a wall of sound, so big it cancels itself out.

What drives you to care about other people, and what keeps that caring alive when you're tired or stressed out? How is it working for you?