Help Wanted: Superman, apply within

I want to go to Darfur.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking…. “Well who doesn’t?” But, I’m serious. I want to go to the middle of that mess and see what I can do to help. I have no false pretenses about fixing the situation. I mean, this African region in Sudan has suffered through war and famine since before I was born and I know no one man can end the situation. But I am certain I can help.

“Don’t hesitate to do something just because you can’t do everything.”

I know me and I know that I would be forever changed. I know that I would be haunted by the memories and that I would never look at a steak from St. Elmo’s the same way ever again. I’m prepared to live with that. I’m at the point in my life when I want to be……changed. I want to feel. I want to be uncomfortable. I want to have nightmares. I want to wake up exhausted and feed kids. I want to feel grateful and be……forever changed. 

What’s the alternative; living a life wrapped in comfort and bubble wrap? Living some Ward Cleaver-esque existance, sitting around on a Saturday debating on whether to go to Ikea, The Gap or Bob Evans?

Well, I’ll tell you what……. Fuck Ikea.

I need to find more personal battles to take up my free time. I need to pick my spots, whether it’s Darfur or any of the dozens of causes that touch me at my core. I need to dig in and stop being a hypocrite.

“and hypocrite used to be such a big word to you,

And it don’t seem to mean anything to you now.”- John Mellencamp

I know that I can’t do everything, but I can do something. It’s time for me to pick my spots and fight the good fight.  I know that Darfur won’t happen anytime soon, but for now, I can help locally. I know that I can make a difference. Moreover, I have to make a difference.

“If not me, who? And if not now, when?”- Mikhail Gorbachev

I’m not Superman, I don’t have a cape and god knows the next time that I wear spandex will be the first. I am no miracle worker and my odds of walking on water are pretty slim. I know that I will not be able to help them all, but I can surely help one. I can, and I must and I promise you this…..I will try and carry the following words in my heart every day.

“There are two kinds of gratitude; the sudden kind we feel for what we take and the larger kind we feel for what we give.”

- Edwin Arlington Robinson

Join me, Wont you?