Is it Good for the World?

I've had an overall ornery past couple of weeks. School stress, the awful things going on in the news, the things that I'm going to be talking about in the following paragraphs, life in general has made me quick to get upset and then quick to regret my attitude. Noah has been patient with me the whole time. He's fantastic.

Several months ago, my public radio station did their annual fundraiser and I donated for the very first time. Ira Glass did me in. The sound bytes were short, succinct, and damning. At one point, they played all the jingles from the various shows. If you're a public radio listener, you'll know 'em: Morning Edition, the Diane Rehm Show, All Things Considered, Car Talk.

--If you can name all these introductions, then you're

a real public radio listener. You need to donate, the host 

of the drive said, you use the programming. It's the right thing to do. 

I knew all of them. 

That was on Tuesday. It took me until Saturday to donate! I can only afford $5 a month. But I knew I could afford it. It was hard to make the decision, make the phone call, to donate for some reason.

Why is it so hard to do the right thing? I rationalized my miserly-ness for several days. I'm a college student. My income is very small. But they're right. I listened to the programming all the time. It was the right thing to do.

A questions that's been running through my mind over the last several months is this: what does it take to be a good person?

Doing the right thing is hard. It takes might. It takes humbleness and compassion. It takes strength. It takes listening. It takes your time. It takes your money.  These things are hard to do, hard to part with.

It's hard to part with your hard-earned money, even if it's for a good cause.

It's hard to part with your pride and listen to the experiences of others.

I'm convinced being a good person cannot be a passive act. It's not enough for me to say, "I don't think I hurt anyone or anything today." But I'm not sure, yet, what to do.

I read an essay in the Mend issue of Taproot magazine by a young, 20-something year old who was feeling the same disheartening frustration with the world around her. What do you do when injustice is a norm, when every time you turn on your car engine you're contributing to an ever-expanding planetary emergency, when you feel powerless to make a change? I don't have a really good answer for that. It's a trial and error process for me. Right now, I'm trying to go slow, making a conscious decision to guide my actions by the question, "is it good for the world?" Are my purchases, my words, my transportation choices good for the world? I'm hoping that the answers I find and act upon will help me be a better person. 

Love, 

Madelyn