Miharu's musings: Do you care?

A thought struck me while I was idly thinking in the past few days.

Have you ever been in a position where you discussed a certain problem with another person (say, X), contemplated on the source of the problem, debated at length on the solutions, agreed on the changes that could overcome the problem, and then left standing at the frustrated end when the changes do not come to fruition? And then you question, why is it that when you are putting in effort and time to make the change, X isn't doing the equal amount (or at least, a bit) of work necessary? And as these thoughts revolve in your mind several more times, annoyance builds into anger then escalates into resentment, which distorts your perception thus leading to miscommunication and greater misunderstanding, heralding greater conflict.

It seems to me, one word explains it all: care.

Does X care about the issue enough to make a move at all?

Why do you care about the issue, enough to demand action for change?

Perhaps this is obvious, but in the direction of progress and development, work is necessary to overcome the force of entropy that continually drives us towards disorder or, dis-progress and dis-development (if such words do exist). And work is... let's face it - given a choice, most people wouldn't want to work when they can just sit back and relax. It's going against the tide, not with the flow. It demands huge activation energy (in chemical terms).

And I figured, that unless we care about something deeply enough only will we discipline ourselves to work - to concentrate our focus and energy to climb over that hill of activation energy and resist the force of entropy. We need to care strongly enough to persist past brickwall after brickwall that stands in our way for the pot of gold we set sights on.

I realized that we all don't care the same. More often than not, we are not at the same page. Just because I cared about the problem and the need to change doesn't mean X cared as much. We all have different levels of caring, apparently. So then, the question:

Why do I care?

Because I do.

It dawned on me that sometimes, we just have no explanation to why certain things resonate so deeply within us. But if we care, then let that sincere part of us motivate our actions. We want to do the work, to jump over that brickwall. We do not have to wait for X's work because we care enough to effect the change, and that is sufficient to start. It does not matter then, that X don't work because now we know, they don't care. It'd be great if they do, but even if they don't, it won't discount the fact that we do.

I think this notion applies to every aspect of our lives: personal, work, community or society. I came to reflect on it when I was watching Jamie Oliver's TED Prize Wish. I was inspired by his fiery passion and conviction for the cause that he was fighting for. But it was these words in his speech that resonated deeply in my conscience:

"And all I can say is I care."