What CAN You Do?

The problems that fill the news these days seem so vast, so overwhelming that they can make us feel powerless. We can spiral into endless rounds of rumination, so caught up in the problems that we cannot see our way to any solutions, an attitude that psychologist Martin Seligman has called “learned helplessness” (1991). Yet in order to move forward in our lives, to stay sane in what often seems an insane world, we have to believe that we can make a difference.

Actually, we are always making a difference. Our actions either reinforce or redefine the status quo. As Frances Moore Lappé has said, “the choice we have is not whether, but only how, we change the world.” She encourages us to find “entry points,” small openings where we can begin making a difference (2010, pp. 118, 184).

We can begin looking for entry points by asking “What CAN I do?” With all the news of the big banks refusing to make loans and refinance mortgages, this month I transferred my savings from a big bank to a community credit union because it lends to small businesses and gives mortgages to low-income citizens, reaching out to rebuild our economy.

Over Thanksgiving, I heard about the “knit-in for the sit-in,” a creative idea from Maxina Ventura of Occupy Berkeley, who invites knitters to affirm solidarity with the Occupy movement by making hats, gloves, mittens, and scarves to send to people camped out this winter. This week I knitted my first stocking cap for a brother or sister in the movement.

When we reach out in hope, we are never alone. On the wall of my study is a quote from Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

In her new book, Ecomind, Lappé tells of a small group of citizens in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the air quality was so bad in the 1960s it made national headlines. In the 1980s, 50 citizens came together to search for solutions. By the 1990s, the smog was gone with greenhouse gases reduced by 29% by free electric buses, a new riverside walk had transformed the city, crime was down, and tourists were coming to see the new aquarium. Affirming creativity over the status quo, the citizens are now planning a zero-emissions industrial park and a green convention center (2011, p. 185; 2010, p. 123-24)

The next time you feel overwhelmed by national and global problems,
ask yourself, “What CAN I do?”
and begin to make a difference,
right here, right now.

References

Lappé, F. M. (2010). Getting a Grip2. Cambridge, MA: Small Planet Media.

Lappé, F. M. (2011). Ecomind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want. New York: Nation Books.

Seligman, M. E. P. (1991) Learned optimism. New York: Knopf.

For information about the “knit-in,” see http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/11/26/crafters-organize-knit-in-in-solidarity-with-occupy-berkeley/. Knitted and crocheted items may also be sent to Occupy Berkeley, c/o Maxina Ventura, 2399 E. 14^th St. No 24, San Leandro, CA 94577.