“What Can I Do?”

“It’s depressing. It’s confusing. It’s fraught. You don’t like where the world is going. You don’t like what’s happening.

What are we supposed to do? Especially when we are so powerless, as ordinary citizens, people who do not hold office, especially when we are matched against billionaires, against madness, against inertia, against so much.

“Remind yourself that your task is to be a good human being,” Marcus Aurelius writes in Meditations, in reaction, it must be said, against his own dysfunctional and cruel times. “Remind yourself what nature demands of people,” he added. “Then do it, without hesitation, and speak the truth as you see it.”

We are not emperors. We are not senators. But we are human beings, connected to all other human beings. Our job is to do our job—to do it virtuously and honestly. Our job as citizens is to participate in politics—not to cede the field simply because it disappoints and disgusts us. Our job is to help the people we can help closest to us—those who have lost their jobs, those who have been targeted, those who do not have the advantages we have. -Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic

“When the people lead, the leaders will follow.” -Mahatma Gandhi

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” -Colossians 3:23

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, feed just one. Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.” -Mother Teresa

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” -Arthur Ashe

If you’re asking and wondering, “What can I do?”…first, do your job. Whatever that is. Parent, spouse, child, friend, artist, co-worker, employer, employee, neighbor, etc…Do it to the best of your ability. Do it with all your heart. Do it virtuously. That’s the biggest contribution you can make.

Then, with whatever bandwidth you have left over (should you have any), help one person at a time. Help the person nearest you. Help them however you can.

Trust that the ripple effect from doing your job well, coupled with simple helpful actions, is the stuff of miracles.