What Is My Part?

Posted by Rachel on: 07.02.2007 /

On the A Declaration Against Torture thread, Joe shared this quote from Gandhi:

�Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.�

Elaine responded with this comment:

I have to do that insignificant thing - what is my part in contributing to peace and justice today?

How would you answer Elaine’s question for your own life today?
Are there things you are doing that bring you joy because you know that they contribute to peace and justice on our planet?
Are there things you would like to do but haven’t felt ready or aren’t sure how to start? What would it take to begin?

7 Responses to "What Is My Part?"

Comment by: joe
1 07/2/07 3:29 AM | Comment Link |
Good questions - rather than in the day of testing, it is in the mundane ordinary day that it is most difficult to keep the faith.

I’m thinking through notions of monasticism and community action and how that might apply to us in our community.
Comment by: Rachel
2 07/2/07 9:13 PM | Comment Link |
it is in the mundane ordinary day that it is most difficult to keep the faith.

Joe, that reminds me of Brother Lawrence’s prayer: “Lord of all pots and pans and things, make me a saint by getting meals and washing up the plates.”
Comment by: Benjamin
3 07/2/07 9:38 PM | Comment Link |
Carmen had some provocative hopeful thoughts along these same lines over at Ordinary attempts quite recently. One thing she said was

These seemingly random, ordinary events are among the most important things that happen in the world each day.
Comment by: joe
4 07/3/07 2:17 AM | Comment Link |
It is one of the great evils of modern life: a lie that we too often accept without thinking.

We believe that we are so small, so insignificant that there is no possibility that anything we do will have any effect whatsoever. And when a lot of people think like that, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

The reality is that we have a lot more power than we imagine, and we have to dare to do the irresponsible, the dangerous, the strange if it is the right thing even if we are in a minority of one.

Because the truth is the truth, whether or not anyone else accepts it.
Comment by: Benjamin
5 07/3/07 7:29 AM | Comment Link |
Joe, thanks for provoking me to do the right thing. You rock.

Carmen was talking about our interactions with people. One of my favorite lines from George Macdonald, who is one of my favorite authors, is this: All you really have to do it do right by everyone you interact with in the next 5 minutes. I’m realizing lately that this is the biggest and most difficult job I have, in terms of peace, justice, and compassion–to get past the fear, and the introversion, and the self centeredness, and just be kind to people, dammit. That is *so* difficult. I don’t feel good–I feel down, I feel sorry for myself, I don’t get what I want, I’m afraid that they won’t like me, blah blah blah etc. But George got it right, and Carmen re-iterated it for me. All I gotta do, really, is get outside myself enough to do right by the people I interact with in the next five minutes. Somehow if we could all do this, peace and justice and compassion would be here.

Joe, also by the way–I really appreciated the link to the story about the two priests in Arizona. I wanna move toward doing that.

I love that one of them has spent time in federal prison for “nonviolent disarmament of nuclear weapons delivery systems”. I have this feeling this is something I could, and should, learn to do. But I’m just not quite ready yet.

In tommorow’s post here in JaC, I ask about the idea of tax resistance as a way of protesting the Iraq War. That’s a provocative question which interestingly was first brought to my attention by Seattle Mennonite church.
Comment by: joe
6 07/3/07 8:44 AM | Comment Link |
Benjamin - there is a lovely story on the Jonah House website about three Dominican Sisters Jackie Hudson, Carol Gilbert and Ardeth Platte.

Having broken into a nuclear silo, they were eventually sentenced to prison terms.

When released, the Denver Post wrote “Ardeth Platte left the Danbury Federal Correctional Institution last week unbowed. She spent more than two years trying to rehabilitate what she considers an immoral system while the system claimed to be trying to rehabilitate her.

Realistically, it was a draw.”

Their probation officer recently asked “a U.S. District Court judge to terminate supervised release for the three nuns convicted of damaging a missile silo, saying his office’s time would be better spent monitoring people who are a threat to the community”.
Comment by: Justice and Compassion
7 07/3/07 10:17 AM | Comment Link |
[...] - Joe Turner, from What Is My Part? [...]