A middle school girl recently went door-to-door in her New England neighborhood selling homemade greeting cards. She is donating the money she collected from her neighbors to the women’s empowerment and environment center I hope to build. The girl goes to school where my mom teaches Latin as well as what her daughter is up to in Malawi. Maybe a week or two ago my mom showed a group of her students the short film Madonna made on Malawi. My mom has been discussing with her students both the strengths and weaknesses of Malawi and the many complex problems here. The girl after watching the film wanted to help. I cried a lot when I heard about what she did, the greeting card selling door-to-door and the earnestness of her task. A lot more than I have at other acts of similar sacrifice and action.
Most of the people I know are kind. They are kind people who for the most part, act on their kind impulses. This girl’s act made me cry partly due to the sincerity of the action and partly because it almost went beyond kindness. But I think it’s more of me being surprised and impressed at how her action accurately and with heartfelt sincerity complimented and fully matched the urgency and need she felt. Her impulse to be kind, to care about others became at a certain moment tightly intertwined with an urgent need that corresponded to the urgent needs of people she has never met and probably never will. Though it may have started out coming from her inherent kindness, her action became one of feeling a need of the world that if she left it untouched would probably not directly affect her. She didn’t spend time going back to school asking teachers what she could do, she didn’t rally friends to the cause, she had to do something right then, right in the moment where her immediate thoughts did not center on those closest to her, but to a group a good 24 hour plane ride away. She needed to do something in the now. And she did.
So many people when asked to help take a step back to evaluate the cause, the problem, and what their impact will be. These evaluations are of course valuable, logical, and are sound evaluations for people to decide what actions to take and where to put their time, energy, and money. That being said, there is something so hopeful and humbling, about a middle schooler feeling a need to do something, and then doing it. When I was in middle school so many of my emotions were ones of feeling scared and powerless. Even in my moments of confidence there was always a slight question of it I really mattered and if my actions would turn out to be worth it. These emotions, valid or not, often hold one back, especially for those impulsive, and I would argue much needed, actions that center on feeling a jolt of responsibility to the world, and a shot of empathy, for people and communities unknown. A feeling that so often gets smothered under denial, guilt, and self-pity. It’s important to take a step back and evaluate your next action. It’s also important to know what you are getting into and whom specifically your help will go to. It’s important to feel and act on reason. It’s important to not always be impulsive. It’s also exceptionally important to sometimes drop everything, make greeting cards to sell so that you can be part of something that you may not know everything about, but that corresponds and lines up entirely and directly with what you feel.
