Decrease Worldsuck Project

[pegkerr]

I've been thinking more about the series of entries I made about decreasing worldsuck. Specifically, I've been thinking about making this a personal project this year. Besides the thinking I've been doing in those previous entries, I've been reading Barack Obama's autobiography, Dreams From My Father (OMG what an absolutely AMAZING book). I've been really inspired about the upcoming inauguration, and Obama's mission to help people find what they can do to help get the country back on track. My church asked, during the recent stewardship drive, that people commit to donating an hour of time a week to service in their community, as well as the more traditional commitment of financial support. I've been more active on the Sparkpeople.com website in the past week, as I've been thinking about recommitting to getting fit (what a time to get injured, groan) and saw a video about the site's founder, who started and runs it for free, specifically because he wants to make the world a better place. (see two minute video about Sparkpeople.com and the founder's mission, here.) One of the things the Sparkpeople.com site does is let you set your own goals.

Yesterday, I was standing in line at the grocery store. All this thinking collided together in my mind when I saw a poster informing customers that they could take a coupon, for $1, $3, or $5 and give it to the cashier, and then the cashier would add that amount to their bill, and then grocery store would donate that amount to a local foodshelf. "This is something I can do right now to reduce worldsuck," I thought, and I took a coupon and gave it to the cashier. I suddenly thought, well, why not make this an ongoing project?

Suppose I try to find a specific way, each day, to reduce worldsuck. Suppose I keep track of it on Sparkpeople, the way I keep track of calories, workout minutes, calcium, and other goals I'm tracking. I could set up a goal called "Decrease worldsuck" and check it off every day when I do something like, buy a $1 coupon to donate groceries to my local foodshelf, or shovel a neighbor's walk, or . . . or what?

What could I do? Could I find something to do every day? Even just a small thing? Besides the basics of being a good employee, a good parent, a good citizen, there are little ongoing things I do already: pack my lunch in a laptop lunchbox instead of buying frozen lunches in plastic trays. Biking to work in the summer. Microlending at Kiva.org, to help entrepreneurs build better lives for themselves. Recycling. I'll keep doing that ongoing stuff, but can I find other, tangible, specific things, each day? Well, I'll have one week this spring covered, when I go work in an orphanage in Mexico. What about every other day in the year?

Should I report it here, to inspire other people to get involved, too? I'm not sure. I could append a note at the end of an entry, "this is what I did today to decrease worldsuck." (I already post here in my LiveJournal close to once every day anyway.) Would that be annoying, or would it be good because it would keep the idea in front of people? There is a school of thought (a religious ethic if you will) that if you do a good deed, best not to trumpet it about, as if you're praising yourself. Maybe I could keep a running tally in a private entry, dated December 31, 2009, and then when that day comes at the end of the year, I could post the whole thing at once.

How do I see making the world a better place? That's something to think about. Protecting the environment. Helping people who are struggling. Helping support children and families. Helping support the disenfranchised. Helping literacy and education causes. Helping people fight chemical dependency. Helping raise people's spirits. Helping people become involved. Helping people get healthy. Helping foster new businesses.

So . . . thoughts/reactions? Can you suggest tangible, specific things I could do, just on a daily basis, to make the world a better place? What do YOU do? I will probably need lots of ideas, if I'm going to keep this up. Would you be interested in doing something like this yourself this year? Can you suggest LJ communities that are organized around ideas for decreasing world suck? (I can think of one: daily_granola. Can you think of others?)

P.S. So far, I've gotten 63 people to sign up at SparkPeople. Hey, that's making the world a better place! Anyone else want to join up? Click here:



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Edited to add: This is my soundtrack for today, on endless repeat: American Prayer, by Dave Stewart, with friends. Many, many thanks to blpurdom, for bringing this song to my attention. Yes, you can buy it on iTunes.

ETA: What I'll do to decrease worldsuck today: I'll spread this idea to my family. Every day at the dinner table, we go around and have everybody say one good thing about the day. Tonight, I'll suggest that we also report whatever we did that day to make the world a better place. I think it'd be a good thing to get the girls thinking about this, too.

ETA: seagrit drew my attention to the website/blog: www.coolpeoplecare.org ("saving the world 5 minutes at a time"). They have an article every day that lists one thing you can do in 5 minutes or less to make the world a better place, everything from recycling and composting to donating frequent flier miles to the make a wish foundation. I checked, and they have an RSS feed: feed_5mincare. Friend it, and you can read the suggestions on your friends page every day. Thanks, seagrit!

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

It might be worth considering separating tactical and strategic plans. Money to a foodshelf -- tactical, aimed to produce immediate local results to solve an immediate problem with a very high ranking in the Maslow hierarchy. Strategic -- moving the world towards being a place where there's a lot less immediate trouble at that level.

[thenines.livejournal.com]

Suppose I try to find a specific way, each day, to reduce worldsuck.

This is an intriguing idea for me, specifically because the "ways" that you mention are generally focused on individual people or individual communities. I'm having a *really* hard time of late dredging up any desire to do good things for the world at large, which I attribute mainly to feeling so angry, bitter, and intentionally hurt by the passing of Prop 8 -- volunteering to work on world-improvements for a faceless population of people feels like swallowing hot ashes. Which in turn makes me feel like a horrible person.

But what would a year of making daily improvements to my own community, providing daily assistance to my own neighbors -- what would that look like? What would that feel like -- if I could get back to a place where I could see my own neighborhood and then extrapolate the world from it, rather than knowing what exists in the world and imagining that hatred on the face of every person I see? Would that count as decreasing worldsuck?

Thanks for opening up another way for me to find the positive, Peg.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I totally understand on the sense of personal hurt over Prop 8. That decision really stabbed me in the heart, too.

Another thought: everything I've read indicates that people who volunteer consistently score higher on scales that measure personal happiness. And, in turn, there's all the benefit to the community from volunteers. People feel more connected to others when they try to help them, and those feelings of connection are both what help strengthen communities and increase individual well-being. A win-win situation.

So yeah, if you want to look at from a purely selfish point of view, if you will, volunteering to help others may be particularly effective way to help with healing those lingering feelings of bitterness. Not to mention that our country needs it so desperately.

[thenines.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've been volunteering steadily -- I don't really know how to do otherwise with my life. Plus, working for a nonprofit, there are dozens of opportunities to say, "yes, I can do that," every day. Doing so has just made me feel put-upon and more like an indentured-servant-of-the-world of late.

Part of that may be because I'm such a big picture person; I tend to work on or for big projects, or ones that are removed from direct personal contact, because of my particular skillsets -- which makes it more likely that I see the people I'm helping as being faceless and formless -- like the greyed-out silhouettes that stand-in for userpics on facebook.

So, taking your post and suggestions as inspiration, maybe I need to focus on the small, neighborly, face-to-face actions, ones that remind me that not all people are horrible, even if the majority seem so. And even horrible people don't deserve to starve or freeze. :o)

Thank you, Peg.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I think it counts. Moreover, most of us are part of a lot of communities, not just our physical local one. If, for instance, you could donate time, money, or supplies to a center for GLBT teens, maybe that would be decreasing worldsuck while still feeling to you like helping people who deserve it, faceless though the individuals would still be.

[ziactrice.livejournal.com]

Interesting.

Okay, brainstorming some ideas here:

1) organize rideshare to fresh food / farmer's markets?
2) join a community-supported agriculture group - and perhaps noise it about to others nearby?
3) get some other adults and organize a children's bike convoy to a local school (much safer, and everyone learns bike safety - and hopefully can be more easily seen by a driver in a large convoy than on their own)?
4) grow herbs or a garden - and share the harvest?
5) volunteer with a children's or an adult group to teach a skill? Cooking? Survival shopping on a budget? How to balance a checkbook?
6) smile and be courteous - especially polite, maybe even up to warm and friendly if appropriate - to all the sales persons, civil employees, teachers, and whatnot you meet every day?
7) donate to a thrift store what you don't need - I have a local one that benefits the woman's shelter. I shop AND donate there, three, count'em three good deeds for the effort of one!
8) say an encouraging word, or treat a child with adult-level respect - takes the right environment and perhaps some relationship with child's parents, but the child will ALWAYS appreciate it. Especially if you take the time to LISTEN patiently to an entire story, no matter how long the pauses and the 'are you sure you really want to talk to ME?' questioning glances are at first...

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the great suggestions! Also, see this thread.

[rachet.livejournal.com]

I understand completely. I was raised that good deeds should not be talked about unless you are the recipient (and then that was turned around and rubbed in my face last month when I mentioned my bonus from the professors so I'm not even going to mention those things again, either!).

Honestly, I'd love to hear what you're doing to help. I do the $1 donation thing at our Krogers every time I shop. And I donate $1 to PetSmart pet shelters fund when I buy things there.

But there's got to be something else I can do that won't break the bank or put more time constraints on my calendar when classes are in session.

So please share. Inspire me.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

See this thread.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

My mother used to give my brothers a glow in the dark star while tucking them in every night after they'd told her something good they'd done that day. She said some days it was hard to find, but ultimately, but she gave them a sticker every night.

I feel that it is always possible to do things to reduce suck every day--maybe not in the world every day, but little things cause ripples. Smiling at people, thanking people, holding doors--they might not make the world better, but they make someone else's life better, and sometimes that's enough of a goal in and of itself, and sometimes making one person's day better makes other people's day better too--they don't have to fight with a door, so they don't get snappy with someone else. Think about days when someone--daughter, husband, coworker--said something nice first off, and how that may have changed the rest of your day, vs the days when there was snapping first off. (I worked as a floating temp one summer, and one boss would thank me for anything i did, if I did something as simple as copy something up for him. Another wouldn't say thank you for any part of a multi-part project until all of them were completed, given to her, and checked. Guess who I liked working for more?) And it may be hard to re-do your mind so that first thing in the morning you can be positive and grateful, if you're not a morning person, but wouldn't it be worth it?

There's a news article I read in Real Simple (http://www.realsimple.com/realsimple/package/0,21861,1734800-1672699-1,00.html) about the use and power of positive reinforcement. And I never manage to do it, but I always want to try and do it. And I know that it would decrease suck, but I still fail at remembering to praise people.

[qwyneth.livejournal.com]

No ideas at the moment, but I'd be very interested in reading what you're doing to get ideas for small things I can do.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

See this thread.

[qwyneth.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you!

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see you post the worldsuck experiences here... it'll keep reminding me of doing the same thing while giving me ideas at the same time! :)

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

See this thread.

[seagrit.livejournal.com]

Peg, this is an absolutely awesome idea. I'd love to hear about your daily efforts to decrease worldsuck.

One resource I've used in the past that might help with this is the website/blog: www.coolpeoplecare.org ("saving the world 5 minutes at a time"). They have an article every day that lists one thing you can do in 5 minutes or less to make the world a better place, everything from recycling and composting to donating frequent flier miles to the make a wish foundation.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Oh, awesome! Thank you! I will definitely bookmark and make use of this resource.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

And it has an RSS feed! I've friended feed_5mincare.

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Thanks!

[rachet.livejournal.com]

Peg! Thank you!!!

[haniaw.livejournal.com]

I don't have any immediate suggestions but I would love to hear about what you are doing and any ideas people provide. I think most people are open to doing "something" but need either inspiration or just a simple reminder to fit that into their busy lives.

Thanks for being on ongoing inspiration to your friends.

[katakanadian.livejournal.com]

I supoort sharing your efforts at decreasing worldsuck. A lot of people don't bother doing anything because they don't know what to do. You can give them ideas and impetus.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I'd love to hear your reports, not so much for concrete ideas as for the reminder. (I will friend Coolpeoplecare, too.)

In my tradition, the highest degree of charity is anonymous - where the donor and the recipient don't know each other. But you can still report actions without giving identities.

[schnoogle.livejournal.com]

I think daily reports would be great, though I understand your concerns. My opinion is that sharing the good things you do brings the issue to other people for them to start thinking about, ultimately decreasing worldsuck further as more people realise things they can do themselves. The trick is to present what you do in a matter-of-fact way, not a boastful way, and to realise that people will draw the line at different places and to not worry too much about the people who want to be mean about you trying to do good.

The daily posts would have the added advantage of emphasising how this is an easy thing to do - if you post once a week, once a month, one a year, people will read it and think "how could I possibly do all that?!".

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I really do wonder whether it will be easy. I think my biggest handicap will be trying to think of things. Although there's also the limitation of money. I suppose it would be easy to check off the ticky-box if I just gave a donation to a worthy cause every day, but given my situation, I'm not going to be able to do that.

[tinymich.livejournal.com]

I actually kind of like it. Since I read my flist every day, it would keep it top of mind for me. And, oh, if you had an entry every day where you posted what you did, I would likely (if it were welcome) leave a comment on your entry (I comment much more than I post) saying what *I'd* done that day, if I'd done anything. You'd be motivating me to reduce worldsuck. :-) What do you think?

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Well, I've heard from a number of people who have said they'd like to hear about it every day. I realized that it's sort of an impossible question that I asked, because who's going to answer, "No, I don't want to hear about how you're making the world a better place every day, Peg." Even though, for all I know, there may be some curmudgeons out there who think that!