FEBRUARY 19, 2025

It took me a long time to decide what the topic of this month’s blog post was going to be. I have several different draft posts sitting on the back burner, along with a few other ideas that I haven’t written out yet. When it came time to start writing for this month, I considered all of those. All of them seemed to fall flat. All those subjects felt like such little things, unworthy of my attention at the moment. My thoughts on Valentine’s Day may be relevant to the season, but it feels trivial to focus on that compared with the chaos in the world at large. On the other hand, I don’t feel equipped to write about the social or political problems of this time. Others have studied it for years and they can explain the mechanics and nuance far better than I.

In June of 2020, I wrote a post called The World is Scary. Both the world and its problems have changed quite a bit since I wrote it. In some ways, the issues I fret over now are simply growths and mutations of what I was stressed about back then. In other ways, they feel wholly unprecedented. Either way I look at them, I don’t feel equipped to handle them.

What I Can Handle

I recently re-read that post from 2020. I found myself wishing that I could reassure my past self. From where I stand now, the fears I had then look smaller. I don’t know whether that’s the perspective of time, or whether my current fears are objectively larger. They certainly feel more urgent. There are days when simply skimming through headlines is enough to make me want to shut down completely. It’s all I can do not to dissociate for hours on end those days. (I usually settle for some doom scrolling and reading time with a good book instead.)

Tempting as it may be at times, I know that I can’t completely shut down. That would be giving up. If I want my daughter to inherit a better world than the one I see around me, then it needs to be built. I cannot fight every battle that I see and consider worthy. I am not an entire army, but I have two good hands and a willingness to help. When the whole world is scary, I can’t face the big things without crumbling, but I can do a lot of little things.

The Little Things Add Up

It would be delusional to think that I can save the world by myself. I’m not superhuman. No one is. Meaningful change comes from large numbers of people working together doing lots of little things. All of those actions from all of those people are what adds up to a better world. When I read a book, I don’t read the whole thing in one sitting. I read a couple pages at a time, over and over. It’s the same principle.

I can’t run the local food pantry, or provide for everyone in my area who needs that sort of help. I can keep their website updated so that it stays functional and the information there stays current and accurate. While I don’t have much influence to exert over the average cost of housing, I can pitch in with my local chapter of Habitat for Humanity. It’s not possible to take care of the whole world, but I can take care of my corner. I can clean up the messes on my doorstep. When it comes to going beyond that, I need to be more choosy about my battles.

Choosing Which Battles are Mine

On a national or worldwide scale, the problems aren’t just bigger, they’re also more numerous. If an individual were to try and put effort toward every one of them, that person would be stretched too thin to have any noticeable effect at all. In wanting to help everyone, they would end up helping no one. They’d more likely hurt themselves through overexertion. Even signing petitions or writing to your elected representatives takes time. (Although it’s certainly a good idea to let them know how to best represent you.)

That’s not to say that the best option is surrender. Choose which battles you’re showing up for, and which ones are best fought by others with your more distant support. When I sat down and assessed what mattered to me and where my abilities and strengths are as an individual, I decided which fights were most critical for me personally to show up for. My end result was three areas: the parks system and wildlife conservation, libraries and information access/literacy, and public schools – especially special needs education. These are issues that hit very close to home for me and I’m knowledgeable about. By focusing my efforts there, I can create a greater impact. That doesn’t mean I’ll ignore everything else, but truthfully, this is probably still more than enough to burn out on.

Preventing Burnout

As difficult as it may be to admit at times, we all need time to rest and recuperate. Honestly, this is where I struggle the most in this whole process. When motivated, I’m the type who will keep working and plowing forward until I literally keel over. That is not an exaggeration. There have been multiple points in my life where I pushed myself well past my limits for a prolonged period of time. It caused serious medical issues and I ended up passing out at work. From there, it would always be months or even a year of recovery time. I had strict limits and requirements for every aspect of my day.

Not only was I unable to contribute to the world or those around me at those points in most of the ways that I wanted to, but I also required more assistance. Instead of giving, I was taking. The people in my life who helped me through those periods were happy to do it. They’ve all reassured me of that a million times, but that wasn’t the position I wanted to be in. I learned the hard way that I need to reserve enough of my own energy to take care of myself.

It’s important to be honest with myself about how much energy I’ve got left, and refill when I need to. That doesn’t typically mean an extended vacation or trip to the spa; my schedule doesn’t allow for that. It doesn’t need to as long as I’m finding comfort and rest in the little things. For me, that can look like taking a nap, reading a book, playing a cozy video game, or baking. Each person will have their own ways of revitalizing themselves. What’s important is finding the time to do it. For that, it can be really helpful to lean on your community.

Community Building

Being able to lean on friends or loved ones for a much-needed break greatly improves quality of life. Show up for your people when they need you too. The load gets lighter for everyone when we’re all lifting together. Trade skills and services with your friends. Grab groceries for your neighbor on your way back home when you need to shop anyway. Pet-sit for somebody who needs to be out of town for a couple days. Give others the space to take on the fights that they’ve chosen.

Doing favors like these for each other takes an amount of additional effort or time in the moment, but overall creates less work. Sure, helping with your neighbor’s grocery shopping may mean another ten minutes or so in the store, but when they reciprocate, you won’t even need to make the journey to the store. These gestures over time will also strengthen relationships and build a more supportive and connected community – one worth fighting to preserve.

After all, isn’t the whole point of society to improve living standards through mutual support?