Dealing with the abstract when the concrete has not been resolved is difficult, if not impossible. For those who, like me, come from poor countries in which reigns a culture of survival, the day to day is presented with too many challenges for us to spend hours for social projects, humanitarian and / or community.
In fact, serving as a support to the family demanded so much, that only cohabitation with multiple generations is a full-time volunteer project. However, in the United States, the system provides us with a multitude of solutions to the problems of survival. Stamps or food banks help solve the hunger problem; Helping Hands, the Department for housing, is occupied - or tries - to beat the lack of a roof; in the schools the counselors collect school supplies and clothes to donate it to our children; Public libraries facilitate access to a wide variety of resources: computers, job search, books, movies, etc.
Once these basic needs are met, it is worth asking: can we afford to dedicate ourselves to improving the lives of others? I think so. However, the natural inclination tends to turn us on the egoistic side, and when we have the means and the time, we tend to waste them by going shopping or dedicating ourselves to any other activity that could not be described exactly as solidarity.
The Uruguayan writer, Eduardo Galeano, in defining solidarity, tells us: "It is horizontal and implies mutual respect. That is to say, that places the person in a treatment of equal to equal to the one that is helped, generating compassion and understanding of the situation of the other, without seeing less of their condition, contributing and helping with the will of the people ".
The concept, as you can see, is not very complicated. Despite this, on very rare occasions we rise up saying: today I will go out to work as a volunteer in pursuit of a cause! Although in many cases we harbor in our hearts one or several interests towards something that aspires to improve humanity, unless in the church, in the family or in the immediate environment there is someone who puts the issue on the table, most of us we go through this world without thinking about getting involved in another mission other than to live our daily lives.
Who could we help? To the orphans, the elderly, the abused workers, the veterans, the victims of sexual assaults, the addicts, the illiterate, the handicapped, why ?: for the environment, peace, racial equality, the preservation of a culture or the atmosphere of the planet, to name a few among the many possibilities. Therefore, if you have not yet discovered that giving is better than receiving, I invite you to consider investing your will in a mission to achieve something. Here, between us, is a first step to eradicate the survival mentality that we still drag after having left behind that way of life.
