Why volunteer?
The connections are evident at every turn, in even the most mundane of events.
We walk down the street and approach a scrap of litter.
We
can ignore it and walk on, leaving behind us a world where pollution is
accepted. After all, we’re not the one who dropped it there.We know it
looks ugly, but we didn't create the problem and therefore we have no
responsibility here. We walk on.
We
can take the time and effort to bend over and remove the offending
litter, proving through our actions that we prefer a world of order. We
didn't drop it here, but it offends us, so we pick it up. We can't stop
the litter from appearing, but we can remove it when it does. We walk
on.
Or there’s the other option we often choose. We mutter to ourselves, that ‘Someone should do something about that!’ We walk on.
Which raises the difficult question of who is this someone who should do something, if it is not ourselves?
Is there someone more responsible for the state of the world than the person closest to the problem at hand?
(c) 2001 Peter de Jager , Pdejager@technobility.com www.truthpicks.com