Whole World/Small World

I have been loving the attention on the World Cup lately: all the enthusiastic fans, the cross-cultural support, the celebration antics. Anything that reminds us that the whole world is full of relatable humans, rather than objects to control or enemies to battle helps us all relax a little. There's so much goodwill going on.

Not that I love the ticket prices for the World Cup. In fact, I'm confused as to who is actually able to purchase them. It's surely not the down and out. I just checked... the cheapest ticket I could find was $471, with most over $1k (before fees). Surely an experience of a lifetime, provided mostly to the elite.

Considering our common humanity increases empathy and an ability to relate across cultures. It helps us feel safer because we feel seen ourselves.

But there is a danger in becoming too aware of the world. Our minds are wired to process and take physical action on problems we encounter. Given the present global nature of travel and the immediacy of current event media, we are able to know about a thousand more problems than we can ever practically tackle, leaving us with the stress of knowing without the power of action. It's a recipe for burnout and hopelessness.

Instead, we need to reign in our gaze. It's not a terrible thing to learn about the world and to relate, but the minute our hearts begin to give up on the global tragedies is the minute we need to walk out our front door to go have dinner with our neighbor. We need to make our world smaller in that instant.

So know the whole world is like you! Living commonly, vulnerably, subject to love and hate, fear and joy. And yet, our work is right in front of us, just doing the next right thing with the next available buddy.