I work in Human Services. It used to be called, collectively, Social Work. Nowadays, if you don’t have a degree in Social Work, you’re asking for an ass-whuppin’ if you call yourself a Social Worker. Maybe I can get away with ’social worker’ – small-s, small-w. Whatever.
I work in Human Services. I manage services (case management, budget management, supervision of counselors) – it’s not neuroscience, it’s not astrophysics, but it does require, um, a ’stable personality’ & a willingness to let go of preconceptions. I’ve learned a lot. And at the risk of boring the crap outta everyone, I’m going to share some of the things I’ve learned. Because, really, there aren’t enough bloggers yammering on & lecturing about the stuff they think they know.
Lesson Number One:
Guilt is pointless.
This is important. I’ll repeat it. Guilt is pointless. Guilt does nothing, solves nothing, and contrary to what you might think encourages no one to do good. Guilt sucks the life right out of you. So-called Liberal Guilt even more so. If you are doing SOMETHING, and you’ve done the best you can, feel good about it. Never, ever, ever feel guilty that you ‘haven’t done enough’ – if you’ve done something to improve the world or empower another person to improve their world, you’ve done a lot.
Because what you have to realize is that it’s NEVER ‘enough’. You’re never going to eradicate global poverty by volunteering at a soup kitchen or clothes closet. You’re just NOT. And to convince yourself that you’re a failure and that you’re personally responsible for society’s ills is to set yourself up for pointless, soul-killing guilt and paralyzing depression. You’ll accomplish fuck all with that. Get up, do your thing, and keep doing it. Help one person today get to a better physical/financial/emotional/spiritual space and you have solved society’s ills right there. Yeah, it’s on the small scale, but that’s the scale that impacts people most directly. One to one is where it happens.
