Changing Community One Choice at a Time

I’ve spent the last eight months blogging about building connections and creating the kind of community that we all want to be a part of. While doing this, I’ve watched as so many of us have had to rethink what community means in the midst of catastrophic changes in our daily lives. At the same time, we’ve seen as the very deep, very damaging cracks of our society are no longer papered over with the façade of economic prosperity and endless busyness.

In thinking about how to write about advocacy, working together for change, and creating a more just world for all of us, I’m frankly overwhelmed. While not completely unequipped, there are thinkers and writers for whom this is their wheelhouse. I plan on spending a lot of time pointing to them and their amazing work in creating paths for us to follow.

At the same time, when reading so many of these ideas, I myself have been struck with feelings of powerlessness. Who am I, to think that I can make this world better? Half the time I’m just barely making it to the end of the day myself! What could I possibly offer to the world that would address these huge systemic issues – things like lack of health care, racism in policy making, or gender-based employment inequity? I can barely conceive of how these things affect us on a daily basis let alone how I can affect them back.

The authors, advocates and leaders who write these books are so extraordinary, so consumed with this life-changing work that it all feels so inaccessible to me. But I refuse to allow myself to stop there. Everything feels inaccessible before I’ve done it. Everything feels impossible before I’ve tried. Building community felt like this giant big thing, until I started just making small choices day by day, building it brick by brick until I was amazed to see what those small steps had taken.

At the same time, like community, advocacy is going to look different for each of us because I believe down to my core that each of us has something unique to offer. If I tell you, today, call your city councilman or tomorrow, lead a letter writing campaign, you may just tune me out. In the same way, when someone tells me that the only effective thing I can do is go protest, I tune them out. We are each perfectly equipped to do our kind of work. The important thing is that we’re doing it.

So, step by step, inch by inch, I want to ask you to consider taking this journey with me. I’m as unsure as you where it will lead. But I do know that if we’re pursuing justice with fierce passion, tempering our passion with humility and generosity, and using both wisdom and optimism, we’ll all be in a better place than we are today.

Thank you for joining me.