more on the "soup kitchen"

I decided a long time ago the only kind of "activism" I would participate in was the kind where I was actually doing stuff that "helped." Feed someone in need a meal. Pick up trash on the highway. Help rebuild at a kids' camp.

Because my few experiences with trying to "change" things have ended in frustration - when I was involved with a group that proposed a change to the laws 'round here that was eminently reasonable (well, in our estimation), we didn't even get heard. Because someone sent a lawyer to our group to tell us that we couldn't go any farther, and the leadership of the group (wisely) decided you can't fight city hall.

Which is why, as fed up with the state of the government as I get sometimes, I don't go out to town hall meetings or tea parties or anything like that. Because I am impatient. Because I don't like standing around waiting for something to happen, waiting to have my say.

I'd rather go back in the kitchen and wash pots and pans. Or knock mud-dauber nests off of cabins.

The world needs all kinds, I think. The kind who will go and wait for hours for a Representative to (maybe) show up so he can challenge him on some legislation he's proposing. But also people like me who go, "I don't have the patience for that" and would rather drive for Meals on Wheels or something like that.

Also, I don't tend to be the kind that people listen to. In real life, I'm rather soft-spoken and introverted - I don't have that forceful impression.

So I figure I'm better off trying to do what little I can to help. I may not be demanding that the government, figuratively, teach the people to fish, but I'm at least (figuratively again, unless tuna casserole is the menu for tonight) at least giving people a fish for today.