Doing Good
I wrote the following for a weekly newsletter called "Thoughts About Life" that goes out to people at my company ...I’m a member of an organization (note I’m deliberately not using the “r” word here. …) which tends to consider doing Socially Good Things to be high on the list of Importance. As do many other organizations of the same type as mine, we have a Social Concerns chairperson whose role it is to encourage us by giving suggestions and organizing Socially Good Activities.
Problem is, many of the Good Things we’re encouraged to work towards tend to be … well … too cosmic for me. World Peace, for instance. There’s a Saturday morning demonstration across from our organization’s building in favor of world peace. Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m in favor of world peace. Isn’t everyone? (At least everyone I know). So spending time telling people I’m in favor of world peace is sort of like telling people I’m in favor of a certain amount of oxygen in the air.
So, what to do. Homelessness is one of those problems that strikes me as being particularly important, so I make some contributions to an organization in Quincy called Father Bill’s Place. But to me, giving money isn’t really *doing* something. It’s a little bit of a cop-out, so I could feel guilty that I don’t do more. Members of my organization help out at an English as a Second Language class on a regular basis – I don’t. I think it has something to do with not wanting to commit the time on a regular basis. Something like that. I guess I must have a lot more important stuff to do.
Thankfully, some years ago, I came up with a solution to feeling guilty about not doing any Socially Good Things. There’s one that I do, and I do it almost every day: When I’m driving, I let people merge in front of me.
For those of you reading this from outside of the Boston area, I can see you either mentally or physically scratching your heads. Isn’t that what I’m *supposed* to do? Isn’t that what *any good driver* would do? Yep, sure is. But the key is: I drive in Boston. Letting people freely merge here only serves to identify me as a Wimpy Driver. But maybe, just maybe, the person who I allowed to merge in front of me smiled ever so slightly. And that’s a Socially Good Thing.
My Socially Good Things, then, tend to be really really small things. If I see a paper cup on a sidewalk, I’ll often pick it up and hope there’s a trash container nearby. The fact that the cup isn’t there anymore won’t cause a smile (who knew it was there in the first place?) , but it might prevent a frown. I try to smile at other people, because they’ll usually smile back. (Even more interesting, they’ll probably wonder why I’m smiling.)
Maybe, if I’m lucky, all these tiny Good Things might add up to being the equivalent of one Larger Good Thing. One never knows how this works.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 1:35 PM
3 Comments:
On the other hand, when I lived in London, I sometimes, with gentle mischief, ruined a Londoner's day, or at least their morning, just with a simple little smile. As I walked up the High Street, I'd give a nice smile, with a gently twinkling eye, and watch their stone cheeks begin to tremble. "Who is that?" "Am I supposed to know her?" "Did I just meet her the other day?" "Why is she smiling?" "Oh my God! Suppose I DON'T know her? What does she want?" "Is she still behind me?" "Should I run?" I was never mean enough to say "Good Morning" as well.
Hi Paul,
Maybe you didn't read our signs. The vigil is not a general "world peace" vigil, (Not that there's anything wrong with that!). Rather, the vigil is specifically against the war in Iraq. Opposition to the war has never been a 'given', especially at the begining of the vigil in April. Public opinion seems to be more and more in our favor every week. We get many positive comments. One woman even bought us all bottled water as a way of saying thanks.
We do the vigil for many reasons. Publically showing our opposition to the war may help someone else come public with their views, if they know they are not alone. Someone passing by may get the reminder they need to call or right their congress person. If nothing else, we are using the opportunity to use our free speech rights while we still can.
Why not come over and talk to us sometime, to get the correct story?
Lynne,
The point of the posting was that I think that doing small things that have a specific effect on one or more people is a more effective way of spending my time, rather than trying to effect some global change.
My apology if I misunderstood the intent of the vigil. If it can persuade someone to write a letter or make a phone call to a legislator, than it's a Good Thing.
Post a Comment
<< Home