This letter was meant to come with a new talk and a new meditation, both about the news. Then my Mac played up, and halfway through recording the talk the microphone dropped out. So there’s no new episode this week, and this is later than usual.
There’s only so much one person can do in a day. Which, as it turns out, is what this letter is about.
I used to be a terrible news junkie. I thought caring meant feeling something for everything, every headline and every stranger’s grief, all at once. If I didn’t feel it, I must be cold. I thought that’s what a decent person did.
It isn’t. It’s just exhausting.
We watch something terrible happening a long way off, somewhere we can’t help, and some part of us decides that feeling bad about it is the same as doing something about it. Feeling bad is free. It costs nothing and changes nothing. It just sits in the body like a low hum, all day.
We weren’t built for this. For most of human history we knew the troubles of our village, maybe the next one along. Now we know the troubles of the whole world before breakfast, in detail, with video. Our hearts didn’t get any bigger. The world just got louder. Empathy as an emotion never evolved to hold this level of suffering.
Caring is where you put your attention, your time, your money, your vote. You can care about the whole world and still only be able to act in the small patch you’re stood in. That’s not a failure of compassion. It’s just being one person.
You’re allowed to close the app. You’re allowed not to know everything today. The world doesn’t need another person who’s wrung out and useless. It needs people with something left to give the ones right in front of them.
Pick one thing this week that’s at arm’s length, something that’s actually yours to do. A phone call. A kind word to someone nearby. A donation, if you can. Do that one thing, then let the rest go, for today.
When did you last let yourself switch the news off, without guilt? Hit reply and tell me. I read every one.
Much love, Steven
The new talk and meditation will follow once my microphone behaves itself. Until then, two from the archive that fit this letter.
Stillness in the Storms 70, What to Do When the World Is Burning and You Feel Helpless. Recorded a few days after the invasion of Ukraine, and it says what this letter says. Your misery doesn’t help anyone. Start with what’s at arm’s length. Listen here or on Apple Podcasts.
Inner Peace Meditations 89, Stop the World... I Want to Get off. For when everything comes at once, the news included. You can’t slow the world down, but you can slow yourself down. Twelve minutes. Listen here or on Apple Podcasts.
If this letter has stirred up anything heavy, please talk to someone. In the UK, Samaritans answer any time, day or night, on 116 123.
Thank you to Tamsyne, Bridie, Jens, Orsolya, Paul, Linda, Ciaran, Cynthia, Sarpa, Genevieve and Kasia, who supported my work this week, to a new monthly supporter who’d rather stay anonymous, and to the other anonymous supporters and everyone on Insight Timer. You all keep the podcasts free from adverts.
If you would like to support, listen to the podcasts, or just say hello: stevenwebb.uk