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Responsibility of the Easy Life

I have had a lot on my mind lately concerning the American lifestyle. I live what I consider a good life for the following reasons:

  • I have a job that allows me to pay for my needs while providing some discretionary income
  • I am able to live in my own apartment
  • I am able, due to my financial situation, to spend many hours a week on my hobbies
  • I am fortunate enough to have a strong support network through friends
  • Once per year I travel out of the country to explore a new destination
  • If I become injured, I have insurance to help me cover the costs
  • I own a car (with dents and all)
  • I feel like my needs are covered

I bring up this list because lately I have felt a lot of guilt due to my easy lifestyle. I don’t believe that my life is extraordinary, but rather that I am very fortunate to live in the country that I do and have the opportunities that are presented to me. I truly feel like anything is possible, and it makes me think of the people who are barely able to survive.

The tricky part is I sincerely do not know the best way to go about making a huge difference. Sure I try to volunteer on a weekly basis, but there are some major atrocities taking place in the world and I want to know how I can make a positive impact. Do I quite my job and move to another country to volunteer “in the trenches”? Do I donate money to organizations already in place? Do I create or be involved with organizations that get the word out to people? Do I become politically involved? I truly don’t know.

Perhaps the solution is different for each social ill. And perhaps I just need to find one issue and focus on it. I just catch myself really feeling guilty sometimes that I have been born into the life that I have been given. It has hiccups for sure, but in comparison to the millions of people without in the world I feel pretty damn lucky. And I feel like I need to return the karma and give back, but have yet to conclude the best method of contributing.

I genuinely contemplate this at least a couple times a week. Any ideas from you readers would be most appreciated.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 at 11:18 pm and is filed under volunteering. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 2 Comments

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    Interesting read, Rachel- I spend considerable time on the same sort of thinking my own self, and I'm still not sure where the right answers fall. Small grassroots efforts are going to be very well received, but without promoting the "see, you can do this too, it's easy !' angle the impact would be minimal in the context of the larger picture. This would be the starfishes on the beach parable - sure there are millions of them but to the hundreds that get back in the water, it makes a huge difference - it matters.
    Then the flip side - the sheer overwhelming nature of the full situation, and where do you attack it ? Poverty, crime, disease, war - these are all sort of symptoms of the underlying social ills imho...how to affect the fundamental sea change that shifts the paradigms ? Politics ? Art ? Religion ? It would seem that some sort of stepping up and assuming a leadership role is the course of action, for those that are 1) capable of seeing the bigger picture 2) have the stomach for such a task and 3) feel the driving need to effect some sort of positive changes in the world around them.

    I have a friend that is telling me the lesson here is that everyone is where they are supposed to be, so don't get attached to the suffering of others. I Don't Buy It. I take that as a buddhist cop out - the state of the whole affects each and every individual on a fundamental level, and those of us that have should be helping the have nots and the need somethings...

    Perhaps the answer lies in education ? Maybe take a TV camera around the globe and show everyone that with few exceptions we are all the same and want the same things ? Home, family and friends, live and let live - I suspect that 98% of the entire planet wants exactly the same things...maybe start there ? Tough one when nationalism, patriotism, religious separations etc roll into the mix, but still...

    In some very fundamental way were are still a bunch of loose tribes that don't seem to care about the others - out of site, out of mind, what else is on television...I think that is a fundamental paradigm needing some change - somehow get a sense of 'we are ALL in this together' - see if it makes it harder for people to do or allow to do the things we seem to be doing to each other all over the planet...

    ymmv...
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    Firstly, well done for the post. Well written and brave to put it on paper/electronic form.


    I'd like to think that most people have a similar dilemma but unfortunately am of the realization that not everyone is of a similar mindset. As Tom mentioned in the other comment, we are "are still a bunch of loose tribes", and even worse than that a lot of people just don't show an interest. There's a lot of distractions out there for people! Trust me, just increasing your awareness of this is an amazing achievement - it means that you're willing to learn and improve and show others.



    As for my own thoughts, hmm. As I blogged recently, I'm also in a ridiculously fortunate position that I can just up and quit my job for 6 months and not care about working. I'm also looking at some things like this though, that I'm learning from it, and that somewhere down the line will be times to re-pay the privileges (I'm learning and seeing things that enlighten my thoughts). Definitely just getting people thinking about some of these issues is a step I always strive for (you'll see subtle comments on my own blog) and it's one of the few easy ways I can give something back at the present. I'm a big believer in sharing/giving knowledge so maybe there's something in that.

    I do find it ironic that some of us do find ourselves feeling guilty about our situations ('born into the life that I've been given'), but I'd rather have that than just being completely ignorant about the bigger world out-there.



    Finally (phew!) Tom, makes a great point about the idea of 'we're all in this together'. I honestly hold out hope that the likes of the internet are connecting people and changing their perspectives for this. Not only that, probably the one benefit I've seen of all this global warming discussions, is that people are rowing in to do their bit (even if in only a small way), and it's not being enforced on them by governments, etc. Look at the likes of people changing to better lightbulbs, recycling bins, etc. There's hope for us yet!
 
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