Imagine a proud society, perhaps a civilization, as doomed as can be. Imagine Troy, or Carthage, an Aztec city, Paris under the Occupation, some South American dictatorship with thriving malls and torture cells, with resisters with bellies slit tossed from helicopters into the sea. Imagine Atlanta in flames in the War of Northern Aggression. Imagine Blackwater patrolling New Orleans. Imagine martial law after some Terrorist event. Imagine what you love most, your country, your world, your spoken language, your religion, going down perhaps never to rise again. Paint that picture in the darkest shades. Still, could you do, would you do, a little bit more in the time allotted to you?
In any case, the world is as it is, not as we wish it to be. We all make choices about our money, time, attention, love, and we all have a personal risk profile. We all do our own SWOT Analysis, balancing truth with convenient fiction, living in truth with living a lie, and our two or twenty bottomlines, self-serving, political, social, humanitarian, ethical, spiritual, patriotic. We can all do a little bit more. If we don't others will and we may not like the result.
When many are called, and could prevail, there is a moment when each hesitates for fear that he or she will act alone, exposed and to no purpose. So take your tiniest most tentative next step. See if you notice that others do too. With each step the odds change as the movement of hope spreads.
