What Now?

Friday was a great day.  All my classes went relatively well.  That one kid turned in the project that’s over a week late.  My mother-in-law had my son over to spend the night, so my husband and I planned a date night.  And then the world went crazy.  Now we find ourselves on the brink of World War III (is that melodramatic?  Quite possibly.  More frighteningly, maybe not.).  My Facebook newsfeed - my way of keeping tabs on both extremes, since my friends are crazy as hell - is blowing up.  It’s Monday morning now, and I’m trying to determine whether and how I should address it with my kids.

When shit hits the fan like this, I see a couple of basic reactions.  One is the impulse to go kick some terrorist ass.  I was eighteen when 9-11 happened, and a lot of the boys from my town enlisted in the weeks following the attacks.  The other impulse is to go rescue some downtrodden; write a check, protest in support of refugees, find an actual refugee camp to volunteer, go to a mosque to show support.  This is my first impulse, almost always.  And I think both these reactions have value, and maybe both are necessary, given the way our society is structured.

But I also think there’s a third way that doesn’t get a lot of press.  And I’ll admit, it’s a little counterintuitive.  There’s a Jewish belief that all our actions contribute to the net quantity of good or evil in the world.  Say something nice to someone?  Congratulations!  You’ve officially made the world a better place, albeit in a small way.  Accidentally leave the dog food at the bottom of the cart, then fail to pay for it when you notice in the parking lot?  Whoops, you’re part of the problem.  

This idea is helpful to me at times like this, when the evil in the world all seems incredibly overwhelming and I don’t know whom to try to help.  Everyone seems to want to prioritize tragedies right now, and it’s a math (like most math) that I just can’t figure out.  Paris?  Kenya?  Lebanon?  The refugees?  There’s too much pain to process right now, and I don’t know who to help or how to do it.  

Except that I do know.  Who am I supposed to be helping?  My students.  My family.  My coworkers.  Rather than freezing up in the face of tragedy, as I am always tempted to do, we need to settle in and work to increase that net amount of good in the world however we can.  This week, I’ll be fighting terrorism by planning a field trip, helping buy Thanksgiving dinner for a couple of families at the school, and making sure all my kids - but especially the Muslim kids - have a chance to talk about their fears and concerns for the world.

I realize it’s not enough, and I’ll eventually try to figure out ways that I can help the world beyond my own social circle.  But I think it’s worth acknowledging that our first impulse isn’t always our best, and that sometimes we need to sit and learn before we leap up and act.  The fact is, the world is broken everywhere.  There is not a single corner of our planet that doesn’t need healing.  In the fear and heartbreak and anger that follow devastation like this, that healing has to begin where we are.