Jon Stewart is clear about what his job entails, and on my birthday he chose to not do it on account of the Charleston church shootings. And boy does he do a good job of explaining why:

”I honestly have nothing other than sadness that once again we have to peer into the abyss of the depraved violence that we do to each other and the nexus of a just gaping racial wound that will not heal yet we pretend doesn’t exist. I’m confident though that by acknowledging it—by staring into it—we still won’t do jack shit. That’s us. And that’s the part that blows my mind…”

Like Jon Stewart, I can get absolutely paralyzed from the despair of witnessing that which we humans do unto each other. But I cannot allow myself to get stuck there; I chose not to stay there, because from that place I don’t have the ability to act. I freeze into nothingness there. That’s the place of doing jack shit.

I need to take the leap into hope, to love, because from that place I can act. And we all can. Act, I mean. We cannot save the world entire, by ourselves, but I can do my part. And you can do yours. Perhaps that’s the first step? The realization that my part plays a roll?