It feels like, even more so than nine years ago, when I wrote about the difficulties in choosing a cause to support, that there are so many causes, organizations, groups, charities, etc. to support that one might find themselves wondering, Why even bother?

Of course, I don’t ascribe to that line of thinking at all—there is so much work to be done that everyone is needed on board, and stat.  And unless your cause is obviously ridiculous (like don’t bother investing time in the Rich men need more money Society, just saying), be guided by your passion.

But at the same time, make sure that you understand your cause not within the vacuum of its own self, but rather, within the context in which is has evolved and exists.  For while there is no such thing than a cause that is better than others, all causes do have one common origin: injustice.

The trick, it seems, is to gain insight into injustice through the lens of the cause that fires you up the most.  Poverty gets you ready to go out and march?  Identify how injustice created it in the first place.  The environment is your game?  See the consequences of injustice on its health.  Gender equality?  Make sure to follow the tangled web of injustice.  Free healthcare for all?  Underlines the injustice that blocks so many from accessing it in the first place.

In different ways, all of us who are involved in one cause or another are working towards the same time: the establishment of justice in the world.  We should each continue to remain focused on our cause and really understand it; but at the same time, we shouldn’t forget the links between our causes and, most importantly, where it all began in the first place.

There are a lot of good people doing amazing work, but none of these issues are being decisively dealt with.  Perhaps that’s because we are not working together.  We are each holding a paddle and rowing as hard as we can to make the world attain the shores of “betterness”, but because are not working together, we are not getting anywhere.  Perhaps if we learn to row in sync, each working on our cause but each aware of every other, we will be able to advance effectively and much more quickly.

Just like with so many other things, the way to do this is to start locally, to continue dedicating ourselves to what fires us up while reaching out to other working in the same neighborhoods, villages, towns, and cities, and figure out how to work together.  In a way, it’s as if we are a bunch of medical specialists coming together to treat a patient, each focusing on his area of expertise while not forgetting about the others.

{ Sahar’s Blog is all about being in a constant state of learning.  So it only made sense for me to go back to all my previous posts and see how my thoughts on certain topics have changed over the last nine years.  In this new, ongoing series of posts, I’ll be rereading some of my older posts and reflecting on the same topic in light of what I’ve learned since then.  It’s going to be very interesting to see how things have changed! }