I promise it’ll get better.

I’m going to be the nicest person about this, seems to be. I apologize somewhat for that, we’re all somewhat bitter. Most of us have been trying to make it better for a long time. Then again, you came on here of your own free will, so that was somewhat part of your journey. Ah, I remember being younger and more hopeful. Early days.

You’re wading into hell, you do know that. Maybe you already had spent some time here, but you didn’t have to continue your penance…. who knows what makes us keep trying to help hurting people eh? keeps us alive I guess. Keeps me alive. *shrug*

Limited control, that’s the best anyone can hope for. You can get an education, that’s within your control. You can’t make the market value that education, that’s not within your power. You can get a job. You can’t make that job pay enough to live on. Are we seeing the theme? Look I got a great shot of it, born into good education, land and a part of the world relatively free of conflict….. and even with all these advantages I’m still struggling to find hope.

Every day I work with the less fortunate. I see the limitations people work with. Some people can manage it, but it takes resources. It’s a lot more than a positive attitude. And those resources? Often times they are moved by forces beyond the control of the individual.

So while I spend my life trying to move the needle, trying to help the people I can……. I can still appreciate the futility of the whole thing.

Why am I taking this time to lay this out? Because I suspect you care. If you do, you need to spend time studying and understanding these issues. You’ll need to climb down here into the trenches and start working on the collective issue of human misery, because the issue is huge and the workers are few.

A whole lot of people notice the issue, they notice it enough to say “things should be better”, and that’s a great first step, a really great one.

But are you ready to change who you are and how you see everything and everyone, if it means making a dent in the problem? If yes, march on. If not, find an area you are effective in, and make contributions to charities run by people who are willing to make the dent….

of course, it is here that I have to spill the beans, some charities are just slush funds for rich people to feel better about themselves. Sorry. Telling the difference isn’t something they teach in school.

If you want to be sure you’re helping people, you have to get your hands dirty, that’s the only way. You’ll have to get spit at in the face, which is why I suspected you knew what you got into. It’s a dirty job. People don’t believe you.

But we’re a sort of…. . collective, I’ve found we know our own, and we take care of each other. It’s never lonely.