This email is the final installment of my response to the question below.
To read part 1, click HERE.
To read part 2, click HERE.
Dear Ryan,
I am a college student.
I see so many problems in the world (homelessness, hunger, racism, etc.).
I want to use my career and my life to help.
Honestly, though, I don’t know what to do, or even where to start.
What advice do you have?
Cynthia
#4 – FIND YOUR TALENTS.
You will have the greatest impact if you can put your unique talents to work…
I tried to do human rights work in Africa.
It took me a year to realize that I didn’t have the temperament or skills to be effective at it.
I am better suited to homelessness.
More specifically, I have learned that while I have the skills to manage a shelter, a better use of my abilities is actually “homeless education.”
I was in my 40’s before I figured that out. Remember point #1: “Be Patient.”
The work of world repair needs all kinds:
If you are a good writer, write a better world into existence.
If you are a good painter, paint a more just world into being.
If you are good with numbers, handle the money of a movement.
If are good with people, manage the staff and volunteers of a cause.
If you are organized but shy, bring order to the chaos of a visionary leader.
Too many people squander their lives chasing roles to which they are ill-suited while denying their innate abilities.
#5 – DON’T FORGET TO THROW ROCKS AT THE DARK.
The mentor who showed me how to be a part of making the world a better place is a catholic nun.
She taught me the twin duties of humankind:
- Mercy – The duty to ease the suffering of others through our acts of compassion.
- Justice – The duty to confront the systems, organizations and even people that created the suffering through our acts of advocacy, organizing or even civil disobedience.
We feed people because mercy demands it.
We fight systems that create hunger because justice demands it.
We shelter people because mercy demands it.
We dismantle systems that create homelessness because justice demands it.
We clothe people because mercy demands it.
We rage against machines that are indifferent to human dignity because justice demands it.
When all of this has passed away and the busyness of our lives has grown quiet—in the stillness of eternity—only two things will remain:
The spilled colors where we have painted kindness onto the canvas of others’ lives.
The pinholes in the firmament where we threw rocks at the darkness to let the light in.
Peace,
Ryan
