So much passion, so little action! (bring DIY back!)

I am not a part of a very DIY minded generation, or at least I don't think so.

Sure there are people who still are solely DIY type folks, but that has vastly been taken over by the corporate mindset--fast money, big stacks, a lot of power. It happens all the time, the small mom & pop shops can't keep up with the corporate competition and get bought out. It wasn't for a lack of passion, nor a lack of action on their behalf, but it's the way of the western world.

Bigger is better! More is better! Diversity in your portfolio! These are the mantras that rule the world that I call home.

This is not to say that I don't partake in the big money game. I have savings accounts, I save up money so I can needlessly buy stuff, but nothing of any real importance, but I have been trained to think that it means something. The more you have the better off you are, but where is the passion? Where is the action?

Nowhere!

It seems that the only way to motivate people is to be on the back side of a tragedy. Something bad has to happen to elicit the passionate responses that create huge waves of passionate outcry. Where is that before bad things happen? Interestingly, I just read a graphic novel last night (the entire thing) called My Friend Dahmer. It was the story of Jeffery Dahmer when he was in high school, as told by one of his class mates. It's weird that nobody, at least the adults in the school, didn't see something coming. However, after he truly snapped and killed a bunch of people, there is a passionate outcry for the victims, when one could rationally argue that Jeffery Dahmer was a victim as well, but was lost in the system until it was too late! Now we're just left with the aftermath of the situation.

Now, this is not to say that Dahmer wasn't crazy and could have not killed people, because both of those things are true. He was crazy, but he didn't have to kill people. What I am saying is that it's bullshit that people rarely rally around people when they need help from the beginning--it's always after the fact. Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake, Columbine, and most recently the Newtown, Conn., shooting. Where is the passion for people before the disaster? People didn't know about Newtown, Conn., or Columbine, Colorado before the massacre of people, but now it's never going to be forgotten, but what could we have done differently if we were proactive with our passion rather than reactive?

I really don't have a clear direction for this tirade, but there it is, and I will end it with a challenge... for you and me!

The Challenge: If you are passionate about something, find a way to do it every chance you get! Eventually it will catch on, maybe, but it doesn't you can rest assured that you're doing something about it!

Go out and love somebody!

-Andy J. Graves