What to do?

The news covers the nothingness of made up words by a pretend president. I guess they have to do this; this is the job of journalists, to capture the events, spoken words happenings of the day. On the White House lawn or in a rally, what the president does has always been news. In our digital age there is so much more news than can be digested.


News bits flood the airways and internet. We hardly know what is important from the trivial. Or if it is even true. The president speaks so often with misstatements and outright lies that his utterings are quite meaningless.


So, what to do? Ignore the news like the noise it is. Watch the news for the cascade of happenings to remain informed, but do not dwell on political reports. They have been made meaningless.


Beyond that point, what do we do? We have the same time, resources and creativity, what do we do with it?  


I’m not alone in my angst. Nor are we devoid of ideas of what to do. Most of us continue to live our lives uninterrupted. We work our jobs, enjoy our families, delve into hobbies. We do these things while thinking on other matters, too. We are not ignoring their call to action. We think through what it all means. We read people we trust. We form our own opinions. We piece these ideas together, and ready ourselves for action. What action?


Voting is one. Who to vote for, what positions to support, which candidates and parties represent my view the most, all that sort of thing. We sometimes decide who not to vote for under any circumstance.


We begin to assemble ideas on what ought to be the outcomes we should be living with as opposed to what is in place now. What ought they be? What characteristics should be present? And then how to we achieve these outcomes? What programs would produce such results?


I want gun violence in schools to cease. How to achieve that goal?  So many ways, but cultural adoption of healthier lifestyles will help. Lifestyles that don’t rely on owning or using a gun, for example. But that is too one-sided. We must not fall into that trap. Better if we gain understanding and behavior change so guns are not used at all in schools. How to do that is an attractive challenge to engage.


I want a reduction of abortions. But I don’t want to tell anyone what they should or should not do. They have the responsibility to do what’s right. I accept abortion as a medical procedure. It’s the why and when that is in dispute. I err on the side of women owning their own bodies and making decisions appropriate to them. How then to reduce abortions? They have already been dramatically reduced. The statistics tell a healthy story of lower abortion rates, fewer pregnancies among the teens who have been a target of this procedure throughout time. Young people make the same mistakes we did when we were their age, but they are reducing their own demand for abortion. Better sex education and awareness. More tools for them to use to avoid the unwanted pregnancy. I sometimes think moralists want sex to be used only for procreation, not recreation. Well, human nature makes this unreachable. People have sex. They enjoy it. Sometimes unwanted pregnancies happen. What to do about that? A number of options are at hand: have a healthy baby and raise it; have a healthy baby and place it in a healthy adoptive home; abortion of course. The objective is having every child wanted and raised well. We don’t do well on this for a lot of reasons. Best we look into changing that before outlawing abortions. How about truly supporting healthy babies, healthy homes and healthy parenting?


So many other outcomes that are needed. Research the ones you have a passion for. Find others who share that passion. Form an organization to serve that passion. Now get to work. Millions do this every week. I know. I’m a mentor, coach and planner for nonprofit entities. Most of these are passionate about very worthy causes. I marvel at their stamina and purity of mind.


These are good people doing good things, or at least trying. You are good, too. If you aren’t trying to expand your reach passionately, maybe you should figure out why. Then do something about it.

So much to do! Our minds ought to focus on that.


May 23, 2019