The Butterfly Effect - You Can Make A Difference
by Laura Interval
I received an email this morning from a dear friend about the horrors going on in Burma. The deadly Cyclone has already killed up to 100,000 Burmese, and has left tens of thousands more in imminent danger of death from hunger and disease. Although the world has responded with emergency supplies and aid, the Burmese military regime is blocking all efforts to get relief to the people. Burmese Buddhist monks, prominent and student leaders, and others, have issued a public appeal for the UN to stop waiting for permission from the Burmese military regime. This email was a plea to click on a link that sends a letter of appeal to the Chinese UN Ambassador to use their power to apply pressure to persuade the Burmese government to allow the UN to move in and immediately dispatch relief.
As I read more about the disaster, both natural and political, I found myself feeling overwhelmed, flat out helpless . . .not knowing where to begin. I began to feel a separation of my world and theirs; a sort of disconnect from the reality of the people of Burma. I began to feel small and helpless and fragile. How can I possibly help and how to begin…? I clicked on the petition… to try to feel like I’d done something effective with my mouse and moved on. But, I was left feeling like it wasn’t enough this time.
So, how then? How do we begin to help the world in crisis? How do we start to address the huge problems, the massive disasters that show themselves in the media everyday? How do we start to become helpful and effective without bringing the burdens and anger into our own daily lives?
And then, I remembered one of my favorite quotes:
