tikkun olam (healing the world)

Okay, so I got this off That is so Queer, which I found off of Crazy Aunt Purl, which Ms. A links to on her blog. I highly recommend both these blogs, as they are written by witty and insightful women. Anyway, back to the story at hand. Faith, of That is so Queer, works in HIV/AIDS, and she has done a few posts on tikkun olam, which is a Jewish word and principle involving doing your part to heal the world. She chose HIV/AIDS as her cause, and she trusts that other people will work on the other causes, like the war in Iraq, and environmentalism, and hopefully Darfur. Because obviously you can't spend significant amounts of time on more than one cause. She definitely does her part. And I, too, hope that someone is working on Darfur. Are they?

Today (before I read the other blog) I opened the spreadsheet that I keep of my donations to charities. Last year I donated to 12 different groups. (A few, like the Sierra Club, do not technically count as charities, because they are either political, or lost their 501c3 status, for whatever reason, that I mostly think sucks.) I think that I should narrow my focus and spend more money and time on 2-4 groups, rather than 12. I feel like this would make a bigger impact than my spontaneous donations to random groups triggered by the numerous mailings and phone calls I get, urging me to think of the poor children in Iraq... or some other equally endearing cause. Anyway, I am having trouble nailing it down, because even though I am a tried and true environmentalist, I do still worry about the Tibetans, and the Darfurians, and all the people subject to human rights abuses around the world, particularly women. Those are just a few of my favorite non-environmental causes. So anyway, if anyone knows of some fantastic charities that they think should be at the top of my list, please let me know.

But what I really wanted to write about was not my donations, but my work. Everyone knows that I have made environmentalism my pet cause. I love nature, so it is easy for me. Sometimes I feel bad about supporting environmental groups when there are so many other bad things going on in the world, but judging based on the charitable donations for the wedding, it seems that many people are more eager to support those other causes than the environment, and someone has to do it (so we have somewhere to live), so it might as well be me. Anyway, I always thought I would work for an environmental nonprofit, and do my part for tikkun olam. But I don't. I sit behind a computer and make water models. I can hope and tell myself it will help the environment, but that's just not true. It might help a few farmers or a few cities. That is all. So now as I sit at this crossroads, wondering what to do, I am back to considering the environment.

Does being an environmental planner (the job interview tomorrow) help the environment? Maybe. I can hope it does. I can tell myself that NEPA requirements and EIS help save something. But I think it is mostly bureaucracy. Would it be a relatively good thing to do before I find a more hard-core environmental job? Probably. It would give me experience. And those environmental organizations just don't favor Albuquerque for work locations. And if I don't feel like it is enough, I can spend more time volunteering for those environmental organizations. Or whatever organization. Because it is easy for me to send a check, but it is harder for me to send myself. Which they probably need equally.

Anyway, I had never heard of tikkun olam before, but I think it is great. Here is a link to her post of a few other Jewish concepts which really bear repeating.