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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
Sometimes the problems of the world can seem overwhelming. How could we possibly make a change? What can we even do that anyone would notice? Is this problem even possible to solve? Sometimes those questions lead to analysis paralysis, and sometimes, and even worse, they cause us to decide there is nothing we can do and simply stop trying.
I read recently about a couple who immigrated to the US in the 1960s and settled in a smaller-sized community in the south. Because they were not white, they had to move into the black neighborhood, and their daughter ended up marrying one of their neighbors who was in the military. The husband had been a cook in India. Although he knew nothing about southern cooking he got a job in a local diner and learned so much that others thought he was better than the original owner.
When the owners then decided to sell, the Indian couple bought the diner and it became the first integrated diner in the community. The story said they didn’t make a big deal about it, but because they were already integrated with the black community, amongst whom they lived, they made it known that they were now welcome in the diner and they came. I’m sure that there were white patrons who stopped going, because of course, but others kept right on coming and everyone was now sitting together in the same space when just a little while before they did not, and could not.
They tackled the issue of integration by doing one small step, and it wasn’t grandiose or controversial. And I am not saying that lunch counter sit-ins weren’t important or shouldn’t have happened, because they were important and were necessary for many reasons. Both of them were working for the same thing but in different ways, and both are important. And perhaps they could do what they did because they were neither white nor black. Or perhaps it was because they had built community in both groups. Or, maybe, it's simply because they did something.
I’m hoping that you all know the story of the starfish, so that I don’t have to tell the whole thing. But a boy is throwing star fish who are stuck on the beach back into the ocean before the die, when a man tells him he’s wasting his time because he can’t possibly make a difference. And the boy, as he throws a starfish back, says “I made a difference for that one.”
There are huge problems in the world, and ones that we cannot solve by ourselves. But, perhaps, there are ways we can make a difference for just one person. Or just our community. A difference that can make all the difference in the world for the people affected. And then perhaps, we can also join together with others who are striving to fix the same problems because we can always accomplish much more together than we can ever do alone. As they say, think globally, act locally.
And if you ever get too despaired about things not changing, just remember things that once seemed impossible to tackle that have been largely overcome, or greatly reduced, things like segregation and smoking in public, or smoking in general, and drunk driving, and many, many other things. It didn’t happen because on person solved the problem, it happened because thousands of people did small, individual steps, and then worked together to make broader change.
As Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Blessings,
John
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