‘What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form, in moving, how express and admirable! In action, how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a god!'”

Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Hide and Q”

There is within man a spark of idealism. A spark that will not be extinguished. It is a universal urge to do more than what is expected.  That urge is what drives me to help in a local food bank which distributes over 20,000 pounds of food to the “food insecure” every month. Why do I do that?  What characteristic or deep-seated urge seems to send me to volunteer.  Is there an inner desire, or core belief within us all to be altruistic and social-minded?  I believe so.  It is an internal urge to have compassion with no expectation of reward. There is an inner voice that wants me to move to action to correct what appears to be unjust.  I give time, talent and treasure to meet perceived needs.  It moves me. It makes me overlook the smells and sometimes bad attitudes of the recipients.

But there is a multiplicity of competing voices.  For some being around the unwashed and uncouth is just too much.  For that matter, some even feel uncomfortable when they hear what I do.  They are uncomfortable because their inner voice has been muffled for so long that they can look a homeless person on the street corner and act as though they did not exist.

Everyone has that inner desire to right wrongs.  Everyone wants to do right when the opportunity is presented to their sensibilities. This week the nation is morning a senseless school shooting, but we seem to turn a deaf ear to the thousands dying in Chicago and other large cities.  The problem is we can’t do everything.  There must be a hierarchy of our altruism and idealism. Sure, I care for the poor and hungry in my city, I do my part, but I am also aware there always be someone I can not help.  I know without a doubt that hunger will never be stamped out of my community.  Never-the-less, I can help with some and those I do help are sufficient. It quiets my still small voice crying in the darkness of my soul to do more.

My inner voice that cries for idealism and altruism causes my actions.  And those actions are what I will be measured.

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