Last night I was tagged on Facebook by a friend, inviting me to join an environmentally focused activist group that is looking for volunteers. While I believe 100% in what they are doing, there was a line in that call to action that pissed me off. (Enough, in fact, that I pushed the post I was supposed to publish this week to make room for this topic.)
Clear your calendars and keep ’em clear. I don’t care if it’s goddamn yoga night- if you flake out our wells get poisoned.”
I get where they are coming from; wanting to make sure that people are committed to the cause is perfectly acceptable. And sadly, there is a very real tendency for people to enthusiastically overcommit to many projects and then later drop a few balls. However, it’s the way this statement is worded that really gets to me.
So I’m calling it:
BULLSHIT.
This is the root cause of so many of the problems we face as worldchangers – the expectation that we have to martyr ourselves for the causes we believe in, sacrificing ourselves for the greater good. Look, I get it. I know that the work, the cause, the fight are all important – imperative, even.
That being said, I wish to counter: the work is important but, damn it, YOU are just as important.
It’s time to change the conversation. It’s time to start standing up for ourselves and our needs as adamantly as we do for the subject or objects of our work. It’s time to cut the bullshit.
And, it’s not going to be easy. This particular mindset has become an expectation, and has almost become a cultural norm. By stepping up and declaring that you’re opting out of this mentality, you challenge the system and the status quo. You become a rebel against the rebellion.
I don’t see that as a bad thing. The revolutionaries in our world have always seen a better future, and have been willing to step forward and say “enough”. It’s time that we honor ourselves – our health, our bodies and our minds.
It’s time.
We are worldchangers and our time has come.
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