World Ark Magazine - September/October 2008 - (Page 36)

ending poverty. But if 10 million of us are asking what one person can possibly do, the question changes to “What can 10 million people do?” Then the question becomes, “What couldn’t we do?” Poor people around the world have been faithfully, often painfully, progressing on many fronts. They cannot afford our cynicism, and neither can we. Of all the issues surrounding hunger and poverty, which small piece —Wangari grabs our imagination, which are we most curious about? We can take hold of that small bit and begin working from there. As Confucius said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Engage somehow, somewhere, even if it seems futile. “Unless you are struggling with finding an answer, there is a guarantee that you won’t find it. Your contribution will be minimal.” “It’s good that you want to engage in this issue. Good for you. But ﬁrst, don’t do anything until you know exactly what you’re doing, that the action is right. I can tell you horror stories of people who made things worse by trying to do the right thing. First, do no harm!” Some of the current debate on how to end poverty can be found between two books: Jeff Sachs’ The End of Poverty and William Easterly’s White Man’s Burden. Sachs represents a more centralized approach, while Easterly argues for a more grassroots, bottom-up approach. While this important conversation takes place, tens of thousands of volunteers and professionals are not waiting for the final answer. They are in the field working somewhere on this spectrum to fight hunger. They are not willing to wait until someone decides which answer is correct, and thankfully, their efforts bring real change and a balance between thought and action. Author Anne Lamott, speaking on writing, says, “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping stone just right, you won’t have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren’t even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they’re doing it.” All of the answers are not in. But the best way to learn is by talking to others and then Maathai doing. In the 1980s I attended the mission-oriented Oakhurst Baptist Church in Atlanta. With only about 250 members who met in a sanctuary with peeling paint, Oakhurst spawned a number of mission groups: a restaurant for homeless people, a residential addiction treatment program for homeless men on the third floor of the church, a Witness for Peace group and a sanctuary for refugees from Central America. The Baptist Peace Fellowship was founded and housed there, as was Seeds, a magazine about hunger, where I worked for almost 10 years. The church was also home to the regional office of Clergy and Laity Concerned, founded by Martin Luther King Jr. These are just a few of the outward-reaching missions of this small, fi nancially struggling congregation. For a small group to start a new effort at Oakhurst, among the other requirements, they had to ask two key questions: Is this task impossible? And is it likely to fail? To move forward, the answer to both had to be yes! Some mission attempts were flops; they just didn’t work. We honored these attempts as well and moved on. Had church members waited until they had eliminated all risk of failure and been assured of success, not one of those efforts would have ever taken root. Not surprisingly, if we’re doing nothing because we’re not sure what to do, our results will be nothing. People who make a difference, who find ways to tackle social problems, usually draw upon many years of struggling with an issue before they break through. Nobel Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai puts it this way, “Unless you are struggling with finding an answer, there is a guarantee that you won’t find it. Your contribution will be minimal.” Or, in the words of hockey great Wayne Gretzky, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” 36 September/October 2008 | WORLD ARK www.heifer.org http://www.heifer.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Ark Magazine - September/October 2008

World Ark Magazine - September/October 2008 Contents Letters For the Record The Good Life Asked and Answered Digging Up the Past Not a Drop to Drink Facing the Ogres of Progress Mixed Media Heifer Bulletin Heifer Spirit World Ark Market Calendar First Person

World Ark Magazine - September/October 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.