The above comic resonated for me.

Lately I’ve been thinking about that balance between fretting over the world and tending to one’s own garden, so to speak.

On the one hand, I recognize my relative helplessness to make meaningful change on a macro level. It’s kind of the democracy effect, I can only hope to be part of a trend, one snowball in an avalanche.

But it feels immoral to just give up and detach utterly.

Complicating things is this crazily polarized world, with each side campaigning to tell me how dreadfully important it is that I morally support their worldview and outlook – either to help big terrible things from happening to other people or, in some cases, to every damn myself included. And that gets magnified by our storytelling instincts, our desire for a cohesive narrative for it all. Kirk

As for fretting over the world and a feeling of helplessness, I always think of what I’m doing or can do to make the world a better place or help someone. The smallest thing matters. I always remember the parable of the starfish.

One day, an old man was walking along a beach that was littered with thousands of starfish that had been washed ashore by the high tide. As he walked he came upon a young boy who was eagerly throwing the starfish back into the ocean, one by one. Puzzled, the man looked at the boy and asked what he was doing. Without looking up from his task, the boy simply replied, “I’m saving these starfish, Sir”. The old man chuckled aloud, “Son, there are thousands of starfish and only one of you. What difference can you make?” The boy picked up a starfish, gently tossed it into the water and turning to the man, said, “I made a difference to that one!” Bob

Kirk and Bob are writing the site for me at the moment…

The points they raise here are ones that many of us will have pondered over recent weeks, but you can’t give up. You can never give up.

The Trump question is a big one, but for people like me who can see nothing but disaster coming from Brexit, there is always an argument to be made. Don’t give up.

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