CFC Blog #209: On Proximity and Starting with What's in Front of You
There has been many times I've thought of The Starfish Story, where a child throws starfish back into the ocean so that they don't shrivel up in the sun. When an old man confronts him and tells him there are way too many and that he couldn't possibly make a difference, the boy responds, "I made a difference for that one," after he throws it back into the sea. Lauren, I love that you shed light on this idea... humans hold a great deal of power in their hands each day. And this beautifully-written blog shows just how far that power can go and the huge potential we have to share. And oftentimes a calling to do so can lie right at our fingertips.
-Amanda
On Proximity and Starting with What’s in Front of You
Bryan Stevenson, the author of Just Mercy and the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, has an idea he calls “getting proximate” in order to really understand the experiences of people who are marginalized or who have experienced systemic disadvantages. Stevenson believes that “if you are willing to get closer to people who are suffering, you will find the power to change the world.”
This seems rather intuitive – but it is definitely more challenging than just reading a book like Just Mercy and saying that is enough. I know I have certainly been guilty of that line of thinking at times.
Still, dismantling structures that have become embedded with unequal power over years, healing trauma that has been passed down from generations, ending inhumane police brutality…none of that will be done in our lifetime. And none of that falls on an individual alone. It’s an orientation of taking the long view with a collective consciousness (while not dismissing some level of individual responsibility). I think of the MLK Jr. quote, “Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” This is intimating for anybody! Paralyzing even.
Greg Parsons on a CFC call last week talked about how he is starting small, starting local – I think this resonated with many people. I like thinking about the questions we are asking right now as both emergent and top-down – maybe it starts with us and our day-to-day capabilities (bottom-up) just as much as it starts with the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and policymakers in Washington (top-down). I like the idea of starting with what is in front of you – who is in your neighborhood? What resources do you have to share? How can you make a difference to people you can physically spend time with (taking COVID out of the mix for a minute)? How can you sit with someone in their pain right now?
Although not necessarily related to what we are currently reckoning with in America, my recent favorite example comes from our friend, Sourav Choudhary. One of the first few CFC “reflections” calls we had when COVID first started shaking up our realities, Sourav shared that a cousin in India had recently told him about dogs and horses in his town that had either been abandoned or lost their source of food as roadside few shops shutdown in response to the virus. I’ve seen some of the videos myself, and the images of these animals – skin and bones – would make any heart ache. Without thinking twice, Sourav jumped in and was able to donate a sustainable amount of his own savings, as well as gather some from friends and coworkers, totaling a few thousand dollars - enough to feed dozens of animals for weeks. (If you want to help out too, we can connect you to Sourav!) As Pip wrote to Sourav, “I so hope you don’t teach your kids that your kind response to the horses in Calcutta was small.”
As another person on a reflection call also said – if a small animal in a random meat market in Wuhan, China could create such strong ripple effects of destruction throughout the world, imagine the power just one person holds to do good – starting right now with what you have and what you know.