I always stress the importance of “awareness”–but could that just be laziness? It seems to me I have achieved little in action; all I do is blog about stuff. I rant, I express, I talk about how I feel and what I’ve learned about the world–be it social issues, spirituality, God, gender, homosexuality, the human condition, or just random things I’ve come across…
I would like to think that self-expression is a form of activism. After all, awareness leads to new perspectives, and new perspectives lead to renewed actions. It is more subtle, less invasive, and demands less attention and physical participation. By physical participation, I mean that you don’t have to actually go out there and join a march or protest. Does this make blogging less valid, less effective, or less “legit”?
I don’t know. I can’t exactly say I don’t have the “time” to get involved, because really, it’s not a matter of time but a matter of choice. Is it fair to say that some of us simply don’t have the time to be “out there”?
I think about this all the time. As much as I want to change the world, and as much as I feel like I should be “out there” if I really want to make a difference–I blog. I read and I write about what I read, about my new insights, about the things that happen in my life. Am I doing “nothing”?
“We can’t change the world.” That is utterly untrue, isn’t it? We are just all complacent. Well, most of us, anyway. We’re too caught up with our own lives. Too busy or too incapable to “change the world”. I’m using “change the world” as an umbrella term for…basically we want to change, things that are unfair in our society that we know shouldn’t be there, things we disapprove of and seeks to correct…we all have a conscience, do we not? But we make excuses for ourselves. Sometimes I wonder–what on earth are we doing with our lives, if we simply ignore the bigger problems around us–that we are all part of?
Can we do it? Is it even possible? Can we come together as a collective and mutually decide to “make the world a better place”? Technically, we can, but it’s not a matter of can or can’t, isn’t it? It’s a matter of choice, again. And sometimes we are not aware of the choices we’ve already made. Not caring, for example. Remaining ignorant, for example. Not questioning, for example.
So I made it my imperative to question. I want to get to the bottom of things. I want to know why things are the way they are, how the world has come to be like this. I want to learn. I want to share with the world what I have learned. Because while optimism and some heroic sense of duty demand me to be a leader, to be “out there”, I seem to also recognize that it is impossible to “change the world”.
So I…blog. I try to change the world through awareness. I believe small gestures and small insights, epiphanies will lead to a different attitude, and a different action, a different life, a different outcome. Am I doing enough? Or maybe I’m just wondering: am I doing enough so I have the right to complain? I know I am doing what I love. When I type, I get lost in my typing. Can I justify my meager activism through love and passion and optimism? I keep thinking, is this enough? Is this enough?
Is this really enough?