Shifting My Focus

Many of us work tirelessly behind the scenes. We are trying to make this world a better place. It’s not glamorous work, but it’s important and its complexity is beyond imagination.

How many people are involved in bringing gently used bras and feminine hygiene products to women in shelters and to the ones who live in their cars or in cardboard boxes? How many people does it take to make sure a hungry child in school gets a free lunch? How many hands touch the fur of an abused animal until it’s finally healed, fed, and ready to go to a good home.

Too many to count? Too many names to list?

The other day my friend cried, tears were rolling down her face when she looked at us. I could tell she was stressed out. She works for a charity organization and there is a lot of fear and confusion at the moment. We all are down and sad. We all are in shock and disbelieve. Is this really going on?

Funds are getting cut at a rapid speed. Social programs and non-profit charity organizations are left without any help. Many federal workers have already been released, and the people depending on the help hardly know about it. When the well is dry, what then?

I reacted the same way so many do right now. “Stay away from the news, there is nothing I can do and it’s too much to take in.” The head-in-the-sand method we choose when we feel overwhelmed. Oh, how comforting it can be.

Focus is the fundamental substance of democracy. It is particularly the substance of opposition. People largely learn of what the government is doing through the media — be it mainstream media or social media. If you overwhelm the media — if you give it too many places it needs to look, all at once, if you keep it moving from one thing to the next — no coherent opposition can emerge. It is hard to even think coherently.

I can’t remember the last time I read an article twice, but today I did and I might read it a third time. It makes so much sense.

And then I read….and understood…and read it again…and understood more. And then it all made perfect sense…and then I knew what I had to do.

It’s a transcript of an audio essay. The perfect piece at the perfect time. You find it >>>here<<< and I urge you to listen to it or read it.

I will not walk away but instead, I will find my own path through the labyrinth of information that is given to me daily – hourly.

I need to shift my focus. Head out of the sand, please.