Many of us fall into one or more of several categories about the state of local, regional, national and international affairs. We are or feel:
Of course we might also believe that a specific ideology or political leaning is the panacea that is the cure-all for the world’s ills. Even with such an underlying belief, it’s impossible to avoid periodically feeling as though we are tumbling in a wave in the ocean, disoriented and desperately searching for the surface.
Several years ago I wrote a children’s song called “Starfish” based on the often-told tale of two people walking along the shore when they come upon scores of starfish that were washed up onto the sand. With every step or two, one of the people picks up a starfish and throws it back in the water. The other person says, “There are so many starfish here! What difference does it make if you throw a few of them back?” The first person picks up another starfish, throws it back in the water and says, “It made a difference to that one!”
The chorus of the song I wrote begins with the line: “Find something you can fix.” I really believe that’s what we’re supposed to do with our lives: find something, anything, one thing in which to be involved and try to repair and/or heal that situation. Actor and activist George Clooney was once asked why he became so passionate and focused on the issue of genocide of and support for refugees from Darfur. His answer was simple, “Why NOT Darfur?” There’s a Hasidic tale whose message is that each of us has, indeed, only one mission to fulfill during our lifetime. Rather than limiting each of us to only one act of fixing/healing (tikkun is the traditional Jewish term), I think the true purpose of that story is that we simply cannot fix everything; we can’t through all the starfish back in the ocean. Instead we should consider our lives a journey from one tikkun project to the next during which we fix something along the way.
Passover is the perfect time of year to clear away the puffy incapacitation of fatalism, cynicism and the rest. We should use Passover to infuse ourselves with enough purpose from our people’s story of moving from slavery to freedom, from oppression to liberation, to fuel ourselves with one more year’s worth of determination, purpose and confidence so that from this Passover to the next,we’ll find something…and fix it.