Anyone else utterly depressed about their attempt to "change everything"

Big time, and others are too. I've had a few exchanges with a vancouverite who runs a neighborhood-scale climate change project off the side of his desk -- because I've struggled to get a similar thing going over here on Bowen Island. He bootstrapped his thing, which hits all the right notes of inclusiveness and levity, and has hosted a bunch of dinner parties and the like to try to get the project rolling, and he just can't get much traction or uptake. He ends up doing it himself and burning out. Everyone, it seems, just has too much going on to worry too much about the future when fixing the stuff that he, and me, and you are passionate about fixing seems too daunting to so many people who are all living busy lives and just trying to meet the mortgage etc.

I imagine others in this thread will suggest you hitch your wagon to efforts already underway in this area, and put in some voluteer hours with existing organizations. Perhaps there is a group closely aligned with your passion, with an existing base of change agents?

@james - thanks for that. And I agree. I'm now (wind knocked out of me, and maybe a bit humbled) keeping alert to opportunities to add my voice/action to orgs or action groups that are more established. I don't know that any exist with my exact mandate, but on the other hand, I simply joining in is "living out" my mission, so to speak.

Thanks for the encouraging words, and every good wish to you as you continue to push for climate change initiatives in your very own neighbourhood. (you may glean some inspiration from ted.com, and find the woman - Majora? - doing something similar in the bronx)

Nancy,

It's easy for hope and idealism to come crashing to our feet in the form of despair and cynicism. You are obviously one of those rare positive people who is bursting at the seams with the highest in your desires and expectations for your fellow citizens. Nothing wrong with that as far as I can tell.

The challenge in this difficult world is to focus on what is at hand. I think it's a lot like running a marathon race. If you were to really sit at the starting line and conceptualize what you were about to do, you could easily be overwhelmed by the size and scope of the task before you. But if you take it one step at a time, you can reach significant goals.

Last year I started up Working Gear Clothing Society with a group of people ( some who I did not know at the beginning of this project ). You may recall that we won the "Change Something" contest that was sponsored by this website and by VanCity. Our group has helped almost 100 men get work clothes in order to be able to return to work. A substantial feet, I think.

I'm plugging my group, because we are an example of people working together intentionally to make life better in the downtown eastside. We are driven by hope and a spirit of volunteerism. We are driven by faith in our fellow human beings and by our belief in each other. And slowly, slowly, I think that we're making a difference.

We are always looking for good people to get involved at either the Board of Directors level or working in our shop. Or both. We'd love to discuss ways in which you could integrate your energy and enthusiasm with our goals.

Don't despair! What did Oscar Wilde say? We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars . . .

Hi! I'm new to the site*, and not sure if I will stay, although I can see there is some merit in it, but I'm not new to the problem you expose. I am also passionate and idealistic and suffer sometimes when I cannot see my grand projects realized to their full extent. My solution: lower my expectations dramatically, while still looking at the stars for inspiration. If the project is really worth it, and if the means are consistent with the ends, it's ok if we only achieve very little, as at least we helped humanity take a small step in the right direction (or, equivalently, we helped humanity move slightly less quickly in the wrong direction).

* I came looking for a site where Vancity members could talk and debate among themselves, as a mean of pushing the effort for participatory economy in the form of the next election for the Vancity board of directors.

Nancy, don't despair.  There are some good things happening in the dtes.  Sure, they are small, some are painfully slow (drugs/mental health) but they are underway.  

The Gospel Mission is opening their "showers" project (aka the Lord's rain) at 331 Carrall.  There will be a little work party going on there on this sat, Feb23rd.  Once the showers are operational next month, people can come in and get cleaned up and maybe get some fresh clothes.  Imagine the hit your self-esteem takes when you haven't had a shower in weeks, people get a whiff of you and they wince or turn away.  

It may seem a little thing in the scheme of things, but it is positive, and it's one of the things that will get the neighborhood to the tipping point of returning to civility. If you want to volunteer, they will need some people to help when people are coming in to shower.....Oh, and in case your wondering, there will be no preaching there, that takes place upstairs....Wed and Sat eves at the Gospel Mission.  All anyone can do, is their best. 

When my fiance and I started to think about "going green" it seemed so overwhelming. We looked at blogs online and read about people that have chosen to live without electricity or an oven or a fridge and we thought wow we could never do that. We were also hesitant to share our views with others. But we are learning as you are to focus on the small changes and realizing that they can build to something bigger than just us and what we are doing. We've learned to persuade people to make the changes instead of judging them for not doing so. But it's a hard battle and to attempt to do it a community level would be even more so. The nice thing about the web is that you can find a community of like-minded individuals to provide inspiration and support.

http://badhuman.wordpress.com

@steve - thanks fro your encouraging comments and very cool initiative.Let me know how I can support Working Gear;  certainly I'll let people know about it.I wonder if Translink would donate bus passes?  I've often been on the bus and see a guy clearly trying to get somewhere (hard hat in tow, boots on) but the driver won't let them on without the fare.  Could be a nice adjunct.  I'd be happy to lobby for that if you like. In any case, I'm heartened by your project.
 @alejandro - I'm totally intrigued.  Can we have coffee?  Seriously.  I'll read the sites you mentioned, and would also like to talk more in depth if you have time/willing.
 @charnet -  how elegantly simple and lifegiving.  UGM does so many things that are exactly right.  This is one more.  I got goosebumps when I read your comment.  Booked full this sat, inflexibly, or I'd be there in a heartbeat.  
 @n&j  - I'm in awe.  You bought a cow?  you bought a cow?  Thanks for your comments;  I've added you to my blogs-I-read-regularly! (Are you on twitter, by chance?) 
All commentors - wow - thanks so much. I'm really re-encouraged by your words. Good to go,again! And, hope to connect more to each of you. nancy (aka money coach)http://www.nancyzimmerman.comhttp://www.yourmoneybydesign.com

Good to hear you are renewed in spirit, Nancy.  I do have to correct one thing though.  The showers project is supported by the Gospel Mission, not the Union Gospel Mission.  It's not nearly as big, but it has been just off Pigeon Park since at least the 1940's.  

I should also give some credit here to a local business, Andrew Sheret, who generously donated 4 showers (1 is w/c accessible).  There was also an incredible work crew from Oasis Church, who travelled here on several occasions as well local volunteers and monthly sponsors who collectively help pay the rent and expenses(more help needed).  And I can't forget Drew Snider, the driving force behind the whole thing.    www.thephilanthropists.org

Good to hear you are renewed in spirit, Nancy.  I do have to correct one thing though.  The showers project is supported by the Gospel Mission, not the Union Gospel Mission.  It's not nearly as big, but it has been just off Pigeon Park since at least the 1940's.  

I should also give some credit here to a local business, Andrew Sheret, who generously donated 4 showers (1 is w/c accessible).  There was also an incredible work crew from Oasis Church, who travelled here on several occasions as well local volunteers and monthly sponsors who collectively help pay the rent and expenses(more help needed).  And I can't forget Drew Snider, the driving force behind the whole thing.    www.thephilanthropists.org

Kinda stumbled on this while looking for something else, read it, and would like to respond. Please excuse me if I wax religious, but being a pastor and evangelist, that's how I'm wired. I'm the Drew Snider that Charnet so kindly referred to in his comment, and I'm happy to say that the showers project he told you about is now up and running. You can go to my blog, in fact, and go through the various entries called "The Showers Saga", to get more or less a running account of how this came together. But let me take a moment to share something with you that might encourage you and bring you out of the depression. We're not supposed to change everything. It's easy to get depressed as anything at the magnitude of the job, but we're not supposed to take on the whole thing. One thing I've learned in the past four years of ministering on the DTES is that the job is done little by little, and that the "little" victories combine with little victories in other areas by other people with other gifts to make the overall victories. In chapter 40 of the book of Ezekiel, chapter 40, the prophet Ezekiel receives a vision, in which an angel shows him the plans for a temple. But he never shows Ezekiel the overall picture -- the "30,000' view". Instead, he shows him the intricate detail, cubit by cubit, little room by little room, door by door. Why such intricate detail? Because (and this is my own take on it, on contemplating the question after one of the guys at Carrall Street asked me earlier this year) (1) when God sets us a task, He knows that there is only so much that we, as humans, can do; (2) He knows that if He were to show us the full picture, we'd either cut corners to make the project *look* like the picture, but leave out important details that He wants included, or we'd try to embellish to make it look better than the picture, thinking we were pleasing God; (3) He knows that if He showed us the full picture of what He wants, it would be so enormous that we'd get discouraged and give up.
Does that last one sound familiar?
The showers ministry -- dubbed "The Lord's Rain" -- has already brought "suggestions" of ways to "improve" it: serve breakfast, provide clothes, open longer, be a referral service ... there have been experiences that have made me want to do all of that and more. But I have to remember that The Lord's Rain is my "cubit", and I have not been called to take on any more cubits -- yet. Mine is to open the doors and invite people in to take a shower ... or just have a coffee ... and sit down ... and chat ... and give them a smile and love and a hug if they need it and prayer if they want it ... and let them know by deed if not necessarily by word (because we don't evangelize in that space, as such) that God has not given up on them and neither do we.
So don't despair! Stick to that one area that you know you've been called to, whatever it might be, and trust that others will hear what they've been called to do, and will do it. We're not expected to accomplish everything on our own: just do the part that God sets out for us. (Part of this deal, lest you think there's an element of complacency in it, is that we keep asking Him to show us if there's anything more He expects of us, so we don't become 'weary in well-doing', as the Apostle Paul puts it.)
Oh - and don't worry about what the politicians say and do - or don't do: they will have to face the Big Sir one day themselves and give a full accounting of what they did. We'll have to, too.
Come on down and visit some time: we're at 327 Carrall Street - next to Pigeon Park. Open Wednesdays 7-8:30 am, Saturdays 7-10 am and Fridays (ladies only), 6-9 pm. Hope to see you some time!