Too much stuff!

One of the paradoxes of the Information Age is the sheer volume of information we are expected to internalize and deal with. Being ethical, decent people, perhaps we run around with a load of guilt because we simply can’t find the time to care about all the things we’re supposed to care about.

Everywhere there’s a newspaper article, a TV spot, a radio segment, a flyer in the mail, a handbill at the supermarket, a knock at the door, a pre-recorded phone call, a letter sent home from school – all of them urging our undivided attention. Each one asks for money, prayers, or a letter to our congressman.

Phew! If you’re like me, you want to go live in the desert and send out appeals asking for undivided attention, prayers and a generous contribution in the postage-paid return envelope provided.

Here’s a sampling of the important things brought to my attention in recent days, stirring in me a sense that I ought to be doing something, or at least unsettled me in one way or another:

Altar girls, neo-paganism among feminists, abortion, denial of care to deformed infants, Satanism and promiscuous lyrics in rock music, welfare reform in Indiana, alcoholism and drug abuse among young people, Crack, the homeless, strident liberalism in the Church, strident conservatism in the Church, problems of the aged, rural poverty, unemployment, the lonely, the Third Secret of Fatima, intellectual arrogance, anti-intellectualism, world peace.

One that drives me crazy is John Huston saying “Give to prevent blindness.”

Believe me, folks, I don’t make light of any of these things. But you and I both know that this is just the tip of the iceberg. You could knock out a list longer than mine.

Among all the things that competed for my attention, here’s what I did something about:

- I made out a check to my parish church.
- I took my daughter to and picked her up from baton practice.
- Saturday I met with my Cursillo group and went to the Full Gospel Businessmen’s dinner meeting; Sunday I went to Mass; and Tuesday I prayed with my prayer group.
- I had a conversation with my wife, an argument with my wife and a de-argumentizing conversation with my wife.
- I hugged my kids.
- I hollered at my kids.
- I mowed the grass.
- I started reading a new book.
- I came to work every day at the best job in the world. (This is my job, you see).
- I prayed for a friend who wasn’t feeling so hot.

All of this is to say that these may not be the right things to do, but somehow they’re going to have to be for now.

God made us fearfully and wonderfully. He knows we can’t take on all of this stuff. That’s why, I suppose, we understand that we are but parts of His Mystical Body – each of us with a role to play, a job to do. We have to depend on Him to lead us into areas that we can do something about. He will teach us. He will guide us.

Perhaps by the very awareness we have of global concerns, we are given a better understanding of the awesomeness of God. I, however, am not awesome. I can’t do something about everything.

written by Thomas A. Russell
first published in the Lafayette Sunday Visitor in July of 1986