Of Complaints and Doing Something About It

It is very easy- and gets easier every day- to complain about the things around me. The neighbor that installs his air conditioner above my front door looking ugly, making noise and driping water onto my landing; the drivers that whip around stopped school buses as my kids are trying to cross; the morons that stop in the middle of the road to chat with a friend blocking the entire lane; the degenerates that break the bottles they got drunk from all across the children's park.. you see, its easy.

And I can rage about the schools, the shops, the government, my Aunt the mesurevet get and the insanity of having to beg to be released from a marriage to someone you hate, and more.

It was during one such rant to the one friend I can trust not to judge me or my community and who knows how much I love this country, that I was struck by something. I asked her what the hell we can do to fix all the injustice, inconsideration and general messed-upness of the world when we spend our days full up with kids, work, life, kids, house, life... & becoming depressed at our inability to change anything. It was as I said, "Don't tell me we just have to do our part," that it hit me.

What if-- just what if-- our actualization of something (i.e. justice, kindness) affects the global measure of that something.

Meaning: Lets say that the more that people practice being just- whether in the home, at work, in business, with the kids etc., the more that middah is brought into the world and begins to affect how things happen here.

That would mean that in fact, the things I do even in my own home: returning what I borrowed, judging my kids favorably, giving my husband a break, not criticizing when I can, etc. would have an affect on those things on a global level that derive from the same source. Perhaps, if I increase my consideration for others, those universal scales would tip and rain down some global consideration.

This, I am sure, sounds very hokey to some of you. But, the older I get, the more I realize that God placed universal laws, truths and rules into Creation and gave humans the means to affect our world. Here I spoke about the power of thought and prayer and its affect on our world. Now, I am becoming more convinced that God, being a good God, would not have placed us in a world where we could only watch in horror the things going on with no chance at affecting change.

It cannot be that we sit and wait for a better future from our four walls and despair of making any difference. It is too depressing, too nonsensical- too UnJewish. We are told that the world was created for us, for us to care for and guard. It only makes sense that we were given that ability.

Would that we knew it...

We are taught that Mitzva Gorem Mitzva A mitzva causes a mitzva. I was always taught that the phrase means that doing a mitzva brings an opportunity for another one and the next becomes even easier to do- of course the inverse is true as well, sinning the second time is much easier than the intial fall...

What if the concept goes deeper? What if as stated earlier- the DOING causes the next opportunity to do by virtue of the door- gateway- energy channel- however you want to see it- being widened?

Would this change the way you behaved? The way you approach life and love and people? Would this make it easier to do the 'right' things? Harder to do the wrong?

Would it give you incentive to do right by allowing you to feel that you are changing the make-up of global middot? That eventually our actions COULD in fact collectively cause a huge positive shift, a near eutopian existence? What if the effect was exponential? What if a few positive changes at the same time made huge leaps in global charity, kindness and compassion? What if it could reduce bigotry, injustice and cruelty?

I spoke with someone else about this after my friend and I went back to the demands of the day. This someone (a he)was not convinced. He said that in the end, its up to God and we can only do our part without the expectation of changing anything. I threw the nearest object at his head.

Then, I said, "NO" that is exactly the wrong way to look at it. Thinking that you cannot change anything and that your actions don't matter outside of your own circles is what causes apathy, judgement,depression and disillusion.

So. Now I must act out the changes I want to see in the world. NOT because being nice to my neighbor will cause Achmadoodeehead to be nice to Israel- I am not a miracle worker people. But because I hope that my acts of justice, kindness, consideration, etc will add to the global tea cup of these traits and the drops that that spill over and into our world down here.

Better than sitting and waiting for a miracle... Shanna Tova to all of us!