david j. garcia

Have you ever seen “American Idol Gives Back” or any other show, report or commercial about suffering, and thought, “That’s horrible. I wish I could help directly, but I can’t”?

My brother Jacob Garcia is doing his Eagle Scout project this week. His goal? Collect 500 pounds of food for an area food bank. Hopefully he’ll get even more.

As he went through the approval process, one of the reviewers suggested that the project was insufficient because it lacked permanence. He recommended that Jacob also build shelving for the food bank. That would be good if they lacked shelving. They don’t. What they need is food.

I would rather the extra hours be devoted, instead, to collecting more food. Permanence is nice, but shouldn’t we be focused on solving problems, instead of trying to ensure that there are lasting reminders of our efforts and generosity?

To that end, I ask you to not wait until you can do something “significant” before you reach out to alleviate suffering. You may not be able to make a lasting difference, but you will help solve the problems of here and now. And if everyone, everywhere, always solved the problems of here and now, we would collectively do something lasting and ”significant”.

I’m not suggesting that we forget about solving long-term and distant problems–just that we shouldn’t use them as an excuse to ignore the ones right in front of us.