DURING A commuter airplane chat with a South African businessman, the current problems in the world—and the specific problems in South Africa— came up, and the businessman paused and looked me straight in the face to be sure I was paying attention, and said, “I feel hopeless.” He looked at his hands. “I pass the townships and see the poor on the streets and wonder why the government doesn’t do anything.”
“Why don’t you do something?” I asked.
“What can I do? I am one person.”
I shrugged. But my mind raced to the one-persons like Nelson Mandela, Joan of Arc, and Malala Yousafzai, as well as the hundreds of people I have met who are humbly dedicated to being compassionately useful in the world. I didn’t mention these thoughts to him. I didn’t jump in and say he is wrong to be hopeless. I gave space to his hopelessness. But I think hopelessness can be a mask for indifference and apathy. Saying “it’s hopeless” is a great justification for doing nothing. Meanwhile, the hopeless problems causing his melancholy actually give me purpose. A surgeon is not excited that her patient is suffering—she is excited to know she can help.
He changed the subject with a question: “What do you do?”
Bu hikaye Spirituality & Health dergisinin July/August 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye Spirituality & Health dergisinin July/August 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
ONE WORD TO BEAT WINTER BLUES: BIOMIMICRY
CREATURELY REFLECTIONS
THINKING ABOUT RESTITUTION
THE HEART OF HAPPINESS
WAITING IN LINE
OUR WALK IN THE WORLD
ENTER THE SAUNA
Journalist Emily O’Kelly shares some uplifting research on the benefits of sweat bathing, a global healing practice not just limited to Northern climes.
the trail of ATONEMENT
One Ashkenazi Jewish family escaped pogroms in Russia and then flourished in South Dakota, but the “free land” of their new homestead had been unfairly taken from the Lakota by the United States. Generations later, a celebrated investigative journalist set out to tell the truth of the Lakota and her family, calculate The Cost of Free Land—and pay it back.
STALKING YOUR Mind
Stalking the Mind is part of an ancient Indigenous American Medicine Way to tame your guilt, fears, and shame. What we’re “stalking” are our thought patterns and beliefs that seem to create the opposite of happiness and wellbeing. It’s a powerful psychotherapeutic journey of healing without the diagnosis or labels.
LEAVING MESA VERDE
After 21 years of service at Mesa Verde National Park, RANGER DAVID FRANKS recently guided his last tour of the pueblos and cliff dwellings. He says he was fortunate to assist the archeologists with a variety of work and never lost his amazement with their ability to figure out how and when things happened. The question he still wrestles with is much deeper: Why they left?
BECOMING YOUR OWN LEAD RESEARCHER IN HEALTHCARE
PEGGY LA CERRA, PHD, downloaded a health app to aggregate her medical records and was stunned to see the phrase \"aortic atherosclerosis.\" What she did next is a helpful model for all of us.
ARCHETYPAL ASTROLOGY
\"Is astrology true?\" is the wrong question, writes RABBI RAMI SHAPIRO. He suggests that the truth is out there, but out there is really in here.
WELLNESS IN THE WILD
Spa aficionado MARY BEMIS takes the [cold] plunge at Mohonk Mountain House.
