Days Officially Unemployed: 46
I'm slacking on feeding the poor. Well, the various charities to which I'm volunteering are slacking. Tomorrow night I have my first orientation at a canter in downtown San Diego, and this Saturday I have an orientation in Oceanside. I've also contacted a charity that delivers food to homebound elderly folks, and even though they were quick to respond by e-mail, the coordinator never called me. Today I received an e-mail saying she's going on vacation soon, and they don't train while she's on vacation. I never thought feeding the poor would be so difficult or, more accurately, require so much effort on my part.
Last week I thought maybe I'd walk down by the Cardiff laundromat and buy some homeless people lunch and ask them about their lives. But I haven't put out the energy, and I wonder why. Even though I'm still waiting for my own government cheese to show up (in the form of my first unemployment check), I can't justify my lack of effort to feed the poor.
And then I read this seemingly unrelated CNN article about liberalism, atheism, male sexual exclusivity and higher IQ scores. I wasn't so much concerned with the study as I was about this telling statement:
"'Liberals are more likely to be concerned about total strangers; conservatives are likely to be concerned with people they associate with,' [James Baily] said.
"Given that human ancestors had a keen interest in the survival of their offspring and nearest kin, the conservative approach––looking out for the people around you first––fits with the evolutionary picture more than liberalism,' [Satoshi] Kanazawa said. 'It's unnatural for humans to be concerned about total strangers.'"
And I think that's my problem: feeding the poor doesn't necessarily concern my day to day life, while I was monetarily rewarded and could pay my rent and take trips, for feeding the rich. I need to switch off my instinctual, conservative brain and start listening to my compassionate, liberal heart. I'm hoping, as backcountry rangers are "rewarded with sunsets," that I'll be rewarded with feel-goodedness from feeding the poor.
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