We got a really good question the other day: “How do you expect to tackle the problems of a community if you are only there for a few hours?”
It is something that I mulled over for a long time when discussing our plan. I mean how much good can we do if we are only spending approximately 4 to 8 hours at each stop? Oh, no. Buckle your seatbelts and prepare to spiral into the free fall of self-doubt. What could we possibly accomplish? Is it even worth it? How can we expect to “tackle” anything if we are in each place less than a day?
Those questions got me thinking about expectations, and effectively managing those expectations. What I finally decided is it was really all a matter of properly defining what “tackle” means in the context of our project. Depending on how we choose to interpret the word, then the answer is really quite simple – either we will or we can’t.
If I interpret “tackle” to mean “solve”, then we can’t. No way. No how. No dice. We have no intentions of solving all the problems of each community we visit. Heck, I am not sure we could necessarily solve the problems of any given community with a life time of dedication (Please note: “we” in this context is limited to Tim and me. Some of you folks out there are simply miracle workers and “we” would like to you to know that “we” respect your skills when it comes to social justice and problem solving). This is not to say “we” (ok, I am losing the quotation marks now) won’t or shouldn’t try, but to say the purpose of our journey is to solve the problems of every community we would be giving us way too much credit and would render our initiate futile, given we would most surely fall short of that goal. If we emerged from our trip and the world wasn’t obviously saved, we would feel defeated.
Instead, we are interpreting “tackle” to mean “work at”, which creates much more realistic expectations for what we are trying to accomplish. The intent of our trip to highlight local organizations that are making a difference in their respective communities (i.e. are working towards solving the problems in their community), and join them for a day. During our time with each org, we will complete service, while exploring what volunteer opportunities they have to offer, in an effort to get people really jazzed up about service. You don’t want to work with food? Hey, you don’t have to! There is a family center down the street that would love to have you. Allergic to animals? Bubba, have I got an opportunity for you – a children’s literacy program! Feeling cooped up? Work outside with eco restoration program! You get my point – the choices are endless. By getting people interested in what their local organizations are doing to solve the various community problems (literacy, poverty, hunger, unemployment, etc) and letting them have a peek at the diversity of volunteer activities, we hope that people to have take an honest look at their own community and see where they can help. Our work is not to solve problems in each community (though I desperately wish we could), our effort is to bring awareness and motivate others to volunteer.
Additionally, and I cannot emphasize this enough, this trip is also our way of demonstrating that a little every little bit counts. Let’s repeat that, just for the sake of ingraining it - every little bit counts. I am as guilty as anyone for choosing to watch tv instead of donating my time. I am guilty of thinking a service project is too early on a Saturday morning and I have better things to do (a.k.a. sleep). I am guilty of thinking “it is two hours – what could I possible do in two hours that could help anyone. I don’t need to do it.” I am also guilty of thinking “I don’t want to commit to this long term, because it might infringe on my personal time.” So many times, I have convinced myself that it would only matter if I could donate a full day every week end, or give an entire evening every week. I have convinced myself, on occasion, that one evening every few weeks or every month would not make a difference to anyone, so why should I miss out on what ever it was I was planning on doing to engage in an activity that wouldn’t really make a difference, one that doesn’t really matter.
Well, it does matter. It matters to the person who eats the meal containing the potatoes you spent an hour chopping. It matters to the child you read to for 30 minutes, who now has experienced the wonders of Dr. Seuss. It matters to the recipient of the wheel chair you just spent two hours refurbishing, or the kid you just spent 45 minutes teaching to use a computer. It matters to the dog that has now had a good long walk and returns to his newly cleaned pen. It matters to the family that shows up to the shelter and finally feels safe (and hey, you only volunteer there on holidays). It matters to someone – no matter how little you feel that you are giving, it matters, primarily because it all adds up. Once you think back on all those times you didn’t volunteer because you only had a little bit of time to give, you notice something funny. You notice that all those times you had an excuse add up to a pretty big number.
Final note: We love getting questions from people! Tim and I have spent so much time with this project, we forget that others may not understand aspects of it. So throw your questions our way - we are more than happy to share our answers with you.
No comments:
Post a Comment