Spare Time, Spare Change, and Changing the World

 My spouse and I have been talking about our moving process, about how moving itself feels like it takes at least a year, and then it takes an additional year to feel like we've really unpacked.  He said, "How did we used to move every year?"

We went through the usual reasons:  we were younger, we had less stuff.  But I think the real reason may be that we had fewer demands on our time.  Sure, we were grad students, with a bit of teaching work on the side, with friends and volunteering/social justice work in our spare time.  In a way that sounds like what we're doing now, with the primary job and the adjunct teaching jobs on the side, with friends and volunteering/social justice work in our spare time.  But if I count up the hours involved, it was less in the 90's than it is now.

As I think about what makes us overextended and often overwhelmed, I think about people doing heroic work.  I think about the people and organizations that have hurried their work in getting people to safety away from Afghanistan.  Sure, my volunteer work with my local Lutheran church helps keep the food pantry going, which helps keep all sorts of families going, but at the end of the day, does it really matter?

I do know that quantifying our efforts makes no sense.  Of course our charity/social justice work matters.  It matters to the people who get the food and thus have something to eat.  Does it eradicate hunger forever?  No.  If there's a path to that kind of eradication, humans haven't found it yet.  Yet even as I type those words, I think of some human societies that have made more progress to that eradication than the U.S.

I also understand the folly of comparing efforts.  The work of getting people out of harm's way is essential, as is the work of getting food to hungry people.  

It's also important for people like me to remember that giving money to relief efforts can be important too.  I can't fly a plane to Afghanistan, but I can give money to groups who can organize that kind of effort.  I don't have personal connections to individuals who need to escape, but I can give money to groups like Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services who help get people settled.  I know that we don't all have money to spare, but if we do, we can do some good with those dollars.

The work of repairing the world is vast and varied--there's room for every effort.