Plan after work today: I want to start volunteering. I don't know what I want to do yet, so tonight I plan to look into different options. Some might argue, as Dan has argued in the past, that it's better to work toward large-scale, systematic change, and that it's a waste of time to bother with small acts aimed at improving the community. I have three answers to that argument:
1) Systematic change is neither guaranteed, nor is it guaranteed to produce positive effects; however, small acts are easily achieved and in many cases manifestly positive. Furthermore, the sum of a lifetime of small acts is considerable and maybe even comparable to a single act of implementing large scale change.
2) I don't think the time investment that I'm considering--a few hours per week--is large enough to undermine my efforts for broader action. Not to mention the fact that I'm wasting a lot of my time right now anyway, and I might as well use it one something good. My availability may change, but right now, the time is there.
3) There is a personal benefit to volunteering. It is immediately rewarding, and it helps maintain humility. In a way, it seems like a spiritual practice, something necessary to maintain the health of the soul. I don't want to find myself at next year's Yom Kippur service once again lamenting my lack of contribution to the community.
In addition to my volunteering research, I plan to spend time with Eva, work on my HTRAB worksheet for at least 30 minutes, spend some time on French, and RSVP about Penn's open house.