Feb. 28 | What To Do, part one IT'S NOT always easy getting used to the idea that you're not totally ineffective. Based on any analysis you like, except for one, it's impossible that your life has no effect on the world: whether you look at physics, social science, biology or history, individual human beings shape and change the world. When they get together with their ideas, resources and energy, they have an exponentially greater effect. Except for one measure, psychology. People who believe they are ineffective, that their lives don't matter, or that they are helpless, almost always fall victim to their own psychic condition. The scenario I outlined yesterday -- a kind of massive standoff between the forces of greed and those of humanity -- is not necessary. It's not inevitable. And something a lot better is possible, if we're willing to believe it is, and if enough of us are willing to work for it. While I'm not here to give rosy predictions about the next 10 years, we all know what people can accomplish when they get together and take action, be it to create something or put an end to something -- and we've got some of both to do right now. Speaking for the United States and much of the 'free' world, we think it's normal that people are so devoted to being so out of it politically. In other countries were people have it a lot harder, being aware of social issues and politics is not an inconvenience or a luxury, it's a basic fact of life. Many people who do care think it's normal to live in a world where they feel like they're the only ones who do. That can be nearly as isolating as feeling useless or helpless. Anyone with experience getting something done knows a) it's usually impossible without a lot of help, and b) has a lot better chance of happening when people cooperate. But deep in there, the first step is getting just a little bit past the idea that you don't matter. Or, deciding that issue is irrelevant -- you're going to do what you can anyway. I get the sense that in the past week or so many people have come to one of these two realizations. There is the kind of resignation that we're accustomed to, that of despair, or feeling like there's no hope. Resignation can be turned the other way, too -- it can give way to resolve. But this us usually an entirely organic process. It's almost something that happens on a biochemical level, or like a psychological barrier yields and an idea we have about ourselves and the world changes. At other times, necessity is the motivation. Something just has to be done, so we do it, and the thought that we cannot never occurs to us. Over the next few days I'd like to talk about what we actually can do to help the world situation, in meaningful ways that fulfill one crucial requirement -- they don't set us back personally, but rather contribute to the growth and sense of meaning we want so much. I made a list tonight of 'things we can do' (while getting a long civics lesson about how the rather complex European Union government works), and one of the things that came up on the list is we can feel better about ourselves. While it sometimes happens that the work we do and making ourselves busy and productive lead to feeling better, usually we just decide to go there -- and then take action from a place of awareness. If you're someone with a mental habit of putting yourself down -- a lot of us are, and this is something I've struggled with on and off for a super long time -- it helps to keep an eye on that tendency. While it seems a difficult habit to break, it's also something that thrives in the dark, away from the light of awareness. One of the first steps, and really, one of the easiest, is giving yourself permission to honestly care. Do it with a clear conscience, no matter what anyone else may feel, or what you think they feel. Even if that's as far as you get, for now, because it's a really good start. I'll have more on this theme tomorrow. Thank you for all the really amazing mail that's come in the past few days.