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.

+++

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.