Seeding Transformation

How do we become heroes? Are we each doomed to lives of lethargic insignificance and casual indifference? Or can we be something more?

Stand Up For Kids, the homeless youth outreach organization with which I have worked for over a year, is an excellent example of cautious heroism. SUFK goes out into the streets and shelters, asking youth what they need and giving them what we have. And while homeless outreach is more daring than say, a bake sale, the organization generally limps along with a handful of committed volunteers and not much fervor. The status quo remains unchallenged.

How then do we transform? How is it that we stand up?

Broken

Sometimes we must be broken to serve our purpose. However tempting the path of invulnerability may seem, our hearts are never more open than when they are broken.

Selfish Genes

Dawkins argues that humans will help other people selfishly due to their genetic similarity. Though I am helping another, I am ultimately helping myself by contributing the survival of my genes they possess.

Dawkins happens to be wrong. To be selfish, I need to behave in a way that benefits me. In order to make his claim true, that helping my genes is selfish, my genes must be me.

I am not my genes. Now, I have an intimate connection to my genes to be sure. I wouldn't exist without my genes. My development and continued survival depends on my genes. Someone with a set of my genes may be able to manufacture someone similar to me in many ways.

But I am not my genes, and my genes are not me. If you think you are your genes, then I apologize. It sucks to be you. You can wander about as a set of replicating, twisted nucleic acid pairs. The rest of us will continue in the swirling and nuanced flux of humanity.

Why genes, particularly? I couldn't live without the food I eat. I need it to develop and survive. I may be constituted by my genes, as I am constituted by my food. By why stop with food? I need air, mineral nutrients, environmental interactions, human relationships, personal experiences, and a whole host of other things in order to exist as I am.

I am in part my genes, perhaps. Just as I am in part the water I drink, the food I eat, the people I love, and the work I do.

So am I being selfish to protect the elements of which I am made? Am I selfish to protect air? Water? Minerals? The people I love? At what point do I start protecting the other?

To argue I protect all of creation to selfishly perpetuate my existence is really holding the candle for selfishness. Isn't it equally true that I protect myself to honor the existence of that which I am made?

In fact, a genetic view of humanity can be very other focused. Perhaps the only reasons I care for myself is to honor the genes given to me by my ancestors and to preserve them for my progeny.

Worth Dying For? Worth Fighting For?

There is a difference between "worth dying for" and "worth fighting for."

Something is worth dying for if we believe the person or cause is precious beyond expression. We die for things we love. We die for things that we can't imagine living without. We give our lives in desperate hours when all other hope is lost, all other options have been tried, or when time runs out. The martyrs blood wets the mortar used to build a better world.

"Worth fighting for" can mean a few things. If by fighting we metaphorically mean struggling, then anything worth dying for is worth fighting for. But if by fighting we mean actual fighting, violence, and killing, then we have something completely else.

To kill for a cause is to say that the life of the individual we are killing is less valuable than our mission. It is to cast away the worth of another for the sake of what we consider greater than them. It is to fail creatively, to throw away the hopeful project of vision, and to live in a bitter world of zero sum scenarios.

I contend many things are worth dying for. Our loved ones. The fate of the environment. Justice for all people. Attention for the unattended. Hope, healing, and mercy.

I simultaneously contend that few, IF ANY, things are worth killing for. I cannot imagine the road to a "better" world paved with the bodies. I do not believe justice can ever be achieved without mercy. No life, however vile it may appear to us, can ever be cast off because we have plans.

Community and Outreach

Passport to ASU is an orientation activity that offers student organizations the opportunity to drum up new members from incoming freshmen. Groups get a six by three foot table and most, apparently, bring brightly colored posters and tchotchkes to distract or attract passerbys. Many organizations bring two or three recruiters, others had small armies.

I, for my part, had a notebook to sign up interested members, a six by four inch sign printed by Passport, two stacks of pamphlets, and an example of the purple backpacks we take on outreach.

I was also all by my lonesome.

I will admit I felt a bit silly "setting up," which consisted of neatly stacking my brochures. The organization across from me had at least six advocates, clearly good friends and the product of a strong community. They also had an ongoing slideshow, official sign up forms, and of course, a brightly colored three panel poster - complete with pictures of events and neatly hand printed titles and tag lines.

But as I stood at my meager display as the last minute before the event started passed, I decided I was going to be awesome. I had an important message to share. And the homeless needed these people.

So when the first students began to pass, I started hooking them in. Not standing behind the table, but in front, angled so they would all but face me as they passed. I had the desire to cross my arms, but forced myself to put my hands on each of my hips (making me more open, and harder to miss).

"Hi." I'd smile.

"Interested in joining a new student organization?" I'd smile.

"Ever heard of Stand Up For Kids?" I'd smile.

And so it began. If I got a slight response to my causal social exchanges, I'd push to the next question. Once they were listening, usually they were interested. If you know me, you can imagine. If you don't, suffice it to say that I'm overly energetic and ardently passionate. Person after person, pitch after pitch. Some I have to sell. Others are interested from the outset. By the end of the night I've given out about 200 pamphlets to somewhat interested parties, gotten contact info for 57 very interested parties, and given out wish lists to about 75 members of other organizations who may partner with us.

Not bad, considering I was all alone, right? Sort of. Truth be told, I believe that being alone had huge advantages.

My lovely, well prepared neighbors? They talked to each other all night. Their community, in this case, limited their outreach. In a way, they already had everything they needed. A well developed program, loyal and dedicated staff... perhaps they only needed a few more to continue with the status quo.

Me on the other hand, I was there desperately seeking help so that this idea that existed in about three people's head wouldn't get snuffed out. And I had no fellows to chat with. No buddies to break the awkwardness of strangers oogaling the booth. If I wanted to talk, I had to start a conversation with the strangers and make them friends.

This of course has immediate practical implications. Be wary of simply stuffing the roster of people participating in these events. More promoters doesn't always mean better. There was one organization that outsold me, a group of five who did not distract each other, but rather all were outwardly focused. They could and did engage more people at any one time. Lesson here: choose people who won't cling to each other to promotion events.

But there is a second, still practical, though abstract lesson to be learned also. Community can contribute to inwardness. As a group of people comes to know, trust, and rely up on each other, the outward mission of the group will change. People's hearts can fill, and the need that once drove them to create a community will be satisfied. While we WANT our communities to bring us peace, that peace can cause the outreach of an organization to cool.

This isn't a terrible occurrence, but it can be to the detriment of an organization, particularly if an outward thrust is part of its mission. So keep this tension in mind: While the desire for community motivates outreach and successful outreach can develop meaningful community, "too much" community can stifle outreach, which may lead to the eventual dissolution of community.

Equally Miraculous

To ask for your leg after it has been amputated, that's asking for a miracle.

It is equally miraculous, however, to ask for acceptance about the lost leg. To find peace and blessing in hardship is just as powerful a grace.

Hero Hotlines

Running a hotline may be easier than it once was. Google Voice creates a new phone number, which can be linked to many other phones.

So instead of giving out a personal number, the Google Voice number can be given out. If you want to be called whenever someone calls the number, add your number to the account. If you want a break, just log back in and unclick the box.

While originally designed for a single user to coordinate all their phones, I see no reason why it couldn't be used to allow multiple users to share the burden of being the contact point for an organization.