We can be trapped into thinking that one person can’t make a difference…
…that there’s no point in bothering
…that we will be punished for good deeds
A bias towards inaction enables the enemies of a civil society to screw things up for personal gain.
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This is what I got done in June:
- Sent in my naturalization papers
- Wrote an elected official
- Introduced myself and my kids
- Told him where in his constituency I lived
- Pointed out an issue where he had done a particularly good job
- Told him my #1 issue for his consideration
- Thanked him for his service to us
- Continued my home-based practice of de-escalation — when my family watches me improve myself then our entire community is better off
- I selected a political group and a politician that “don’t get it”
- I picked an area from each where they “do get it”
- I shared my areas of agreement with my wife
- Consumed less violence – whatever your favorite source… MMA, NFL, CNN, hate speech, movies, video games – choose less – I pay particular attention to visual violence as well as violence I can feel in my body – the NFL scores uncomfortably high in terms of pleasurable, tribal violence
- Generated less anger – I can hold emotions, rather than feeding them – my mantra is don’t act on anger – the “holding” is done while breathing calmly because speaking when angry merely feeds it
Each of the above was inconvenient but, collectively, improved my life.
I need to remind myself of the overall improvement because it takes sustained effort to create the life I want to live.
Indeed, it takes sustained effort to create the mind in which I want to live!
Do we care enough to change?
One small step, daily.
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