do justice

stained-glass service August 27, 2009

I realized during my third year of college that I did not have a grip on service; service had its grip on me. And it would not let me go, even as I traveled throughout the country for political campaigns and journeyed abroad. What had begun as merely a job (Outreach Coordinator) had transformed into a way of life.

During AIDS Awareness at my college, I spoke with apathetic and overwhelmed students. “What’s the point in caring?” somebody asked, “If I can’t do anything about it?” The question tormented me, and I finally addressed the student body: “In some ways, the world is so fragmented that the very idea of attempting to put the tiny shards back together again seems like an impossible, life-draining task. But if I can put together a very small piece, and you put together a very small piece, and my neighbor decides to put together a small piece, then we’ll have a larger piece, and that piece can be placed with another one its size and so on until an entire corner of the shattered stained glass is pieced together again. And when the light shines through, casting waves of multicolored light, others will see its beauty and want to be a part of it, even if a small piece. Of course if you try to put the glass together again in one gigantic effort, it will fail. People would get exhausted and burned by those who mock their efforts. Restoration is a process and it takes more than a select group of individuals.”

Sure, this world is a cynical place. Despite irony and cynicism, however, there are still ribbons of idealism and hope and love. I still dare to think that a single person can change his or her surrounding world. The power of potential that each one of us has is mind-staggering, and if there is one hope I have for this new year, it is for you all to realize the power you have to change your corner of the world, to minister to those who are hurting, and to give a voice to those who have none. Henry David Thoreau wrote, “It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.” Let’s affect the quality of the day, and together we can take steps to make SE Portland – and the greater world – a better place.

-Heather McLendon