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In so many ways technology has enhanced our ability to communicate, network and get a glimpse of cultures and lifestyles very different from our own. However, if we don’t learn to act on what we see and hear, all these advances have done is make us impersonal beings who are slightly more aware of what’s going on around us.
I think it’s just part of our human nature to yearn to define ourselves and find a purpose through causes and helping others. It helps create the sense of community we all long for.
And maybe, in a more selfish way, it makes us feel more content about our own life when we see that other people are going through much worse. Being able to extend a hand to pull someone up gives you a sense of power and pride.
Long before being able to join “Causes” on Facebook or purchase fashionable T-shirts and bracelets online, people had to pick up a book or newspaper, read up on the issues and physically go to wherever we felt we were needed. Maybe less were aware or involved, but those who were participating did so on a more personal level that resulted in more personal effects.
Visiting an intriguing Web site, watching a documentary that exposes global injustices or even reading a moving account in a novel is not going to fix governments, people and places that are broken.
Those actions are catalysts. They are meant to create an awareness that will whet your appetite.
Too often the sadness that is felt after hearing a heartbreaking story or the desire to affect change after learning about how, with your help, it is possible to have an impact on a social justice issue is mistaken for compassion.
I recently heard someone talking about a friend who claimed to be passionate about putting an end to the suffering taking place on the continent of Africa. As the friend talked about the various aspects of what has gone wrong and how it can be fixed, he showed off a tattoo of Africa he had recently gotten on his arm.
When asked when he had visited Africa, he replied, “Oh, I haven’t actually been there.”
It seems that true passion for that cause would demand that the $100 or more that was spent on that tattoo go to actually helping people there, or purchasing a plane ticket to go and have a real impact.
The person listening had a great response for their friend. He said, “Your sadness is not the same as compassion. Your conversations about it do not make you compassionate.”
I have grown up under the influence of the heroes I see in my aunt and uncle. They did humanitarian work in India for 20 years and they still go back every few months to help wherever they can.
When I ask my aunt why she and my uncle feel so compelled to devote their lives to this unfamiliar place and strangers who are suffering she says, “We were born here. This is our life. But we could have been born there.”
This idea has completely changed my outlook on the personal responsibility that we all have to better our society and ourselves.
The principle doesn’t just apply to third world countries and it doesn’t mean that the only way to help is through in-person interaction.
It just means that we should constantly be focusing on what we have been given and looking for ways to give it back to someone who needs it. Whether they are living in a hut in Zimbabwe, a rundown apartment in downtown Orlando or sitting right next to us in a class, they are looking for someone who will take the time to get personal and meet them where they are.
In his novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer says it best:
“We need enormous pockets, pockets big enough for our families and our friends, and even the people who aren’t on our lists, people we’ve never met but still want to protect. We need pockets for boroughs and for cities, a pocket that could hold the universe.”
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