Our inadequacy in the face of the world’s suffering and desecration disturbs us.
As it should.
We flinch every time we use another plastic bag, step around a fellow human being sleeping on the sidewalk, hop on a plane, fill up at the pump, or ignore another call to sign up, donate and take action.
We steel ourselves when news of another atrocity big or small finds us.
We struggle to digest another exposé on how bad things are. We shudder when someone betrays our trust.
The experiences mount up. They come at us everyday from near and far. We can’t hide, they find us wherever we go.
They make us sick with fear, anger and helplessness.
We gather those we love even closer. We seek delight and diversion.
We wonder, is there is a limit to the number of times the heart can be broken before it hardens?
Let us not wait to find out.
Let us pick up the pieces of our broken hearts and make a shrine to our shared vulnerability.
Let us refuse to be talked out of loving actions by statistics, forecasts and analysis.
Let us rally the lovesick and brokenhearted and fall in love with the world again.
Just like when we were young and all things were possible.
My Book, The Power of Disability: Many years ago the popular blogger Seth Godin started a project to have interesting people write short social change manifestos. The project has been taken over by the folks at Porchlight Books. To my delight they created a manifesto out of the five disability advantages I describe in the book. To buy the print, electronic or audio edition of the book click here. To write a review here or here.
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