Get Involved.
I struggled with what to call this part of the site. friends and i tossed around ideas. engage? no, too star trek. act? like what?
get involved seemed to fit. it’s active. through one’s volition, she enters the fray.
every epoch of humankind is convinced that his or hers is the most important one. those who smugly note this when discussing our current time miss an important truth: ours IS the most important, even if for no other reason that we won’t be around for any others.
there does seem a ring of urgency to our headlines , however. even a superficial reading requires considerable resolve. a warming world, peak oil, food riots, water shortages, the decline of species, economic catastrophe, people suffering in sudan. the temptation is to put the paper down, before one becomes suffocated by the largeness of the tasks.
the thing is, the problems seem large because we see their breadth rather than the unit from which they are made: the individual. they happened one person at a time. the best part about this, of course, is recognizing a similar truth about large solutions. same unit.
that we can create our reality is a dizzying truth, as dizzying as the possibilities for working towards a better one.
the most important step, of the many along the way, is the first. start, and then all of a sudden you’re on the road, and you draw its map as you walk it.
i have listed some ways to deepen the understanding of Sudan’s story, and to involve yourself in it. it might be a beginning. feel free to list others below.
Are proceeds from the book being donated to a community-based foundation in East Africa?
I just finished reading “Six Months in Sudan’. I usually don’t leave comments and such but you seem accessible, like you might actually read them – that and I feel it is definitely worthwhile to take the time and thank you for writing about your mission in Sudan. I absolutely loved the book.
I am finishing up my prerequisites for the Nursing Program and want more than anything to work with MSF. Your book detailed what I want to do and be a part of. I am glad I found it when I did, the semester will be starting soon and motivation always seems to wane around that time. Not to sound cheesy, but it was inspirational. There were times while reading that I just took a step back and thought to myself what a good, noble and trustworthy doctor you were. I was more than impressed with your convictions, your honest struggle and how you dealt with it all.
Thank you again for helping people that aren’t able to help themselves at the moment. Thank you for caring, thank you for putting the word out there, thank you for trying to bring it closer to people. It is all too easy to forget about the needs of others while living day to day in your own world.
Thanks for everything.
I wish you the best of luck in your future travels.
I would also like to share my deepest thanks for the book, ‘Six Month in Sudan’. I realize that there is no possible way for me to fully fathom the experience…but I hope that someday I too will be able to make such a journey. Thank you for not writing as if it were about you, but writing it as if it were to transcend the limits between “us” and “them”. your book made me realize with modern society, there are so many ways to connect the world, and I also realized that there is no distinction between us and them…we are all human, and have a responsibility to the world and to each other. Thanks again!
So often we justify our decision to take the safer, easier path and to say stuff to ourselves and others like ‘what can one person do anyway?’ but you broke the barrier and did the stuff and saved lives and lifted spirits and strengthened the newer members of teams where you work. Thank you for the book. You remind me that my frustration when I am NOT taking the ‘hard road’ or helping others is real and that the cure is to get out there and do what needs doing for others when the opportunities present themselves. That is the best part of life, isn’t it? To be worthwhile?
MSF has a stand in local shops with attractive young chicks asking for money and I am now convinced that the cause is worth support. What a real and valuable insight into a part of the world – the one world – I haven’t been to. Thank you. You know that you and people like you who give their selves are heroes, don’t you? You do and you inspire those of us who are more likely to wimp out.
thanks for the use of the female pronoun in “she enters the fray.”
much appreciated.