On: Worry and Doubt

The media rattles us daily with a preponderance of things to worry about. Local stories make us weary of our neighbors, afraid to fly, and questioning of everything we consume. Internationally, even the very idea that Jesus left the tomb is being challenged because, what is this...his bones have been found? Is nothing sacred?

Climbing the ladder of gravity we find these grandiose, all-encompassing issues. These are the problems impacting all of humanity, such as access to clean water, affordable healthcare, global warming, un-ethical warfare, growing poverty, genocide in Sudan, and a host of others. They seem intractable and overwhelming. We are left feeling powerless and thinking "What can lil ol' me do? Well not much I guess." It's a vexing problem. What do we do about the naysayers, those that cannot see the forest for the trees (that we hug)? In business, they call it market transformation, and billions are spent selling us false dichotomies based almost entirely on our emotional wants. The play toward fact is neatly left out of the equation. Reality is too dirty, whereas gloss pays the bills. Confrontation with fact exposes us to our own human frailties, and requires us to look introspectively at what it is we actually believe, then ask why.

It is impossible to reason a man out of something he has not been reasoned into. When people have acquired their beliefs on an emotional level they cannot be persuaded out of them on a rational level, no matter how strong the proof or the logic behind it. People will hold onto their emotional beliefs and twist the facts to meet their version of reality.
- Sidney J. Harris

In thinking on how you, as an active humanist can effect change, it is wise to fully comprehend that yes, some things are beyond our control. The human is a complicated beast, one we are wholly incapable of understanding. All one can do is keep plugging along, doing the best we can do with the hope that enlightenment and compassion become commonplace, rather than the unjaded exception. Hope is a powerful concept.

*Photo - Benetton's Vision of Hope exhibit