The challenge is for me to try to do good without lapsing into self-righteousness – the belief that I am superior to others because of what I believe. In America, a nation of whiners, complainers and victims, it seems sometimes, this is not a simple balancing act.

I do not ever believe I am superior to other people, or that I know more than everyone. I learn something new every day, and if I listen and open my mind, then I come to see how ignorant I really am, and how insignificant I am in the great scheme of things.

This year, in the challenging and disturbing and divisive year of 2017, when the country seems absolutely pschizophrenic, angry, f earful and quite polarized, I have decided that my response to will be be and join, if possible, an Army of Good. Rather than argue my beliefs, I will live them. Rather than complaint about what other people are doing, I will focus on what I am doing, rather than argue my values, I will simply live them.

The country and the world are too big, too overwhelming for me to focus on, I’d simply crack up (again.)

I think I am off to a pretty good start, just beginning.My Do Good in 2017 Winter/Spring  list.

1. Do not tell other people what to do, believe, or think.
2. Do not fall into the trap of believing I am nobler or superior to others because I have different ideas.
3. Do not argue my beliefs with strangers on social media. Facebook and Twitter can connect, they can also instantly divide us.
4. I am continuing my hospice and therapy work with Red, for now, focusing on the residents of the Mansion Assisted Care Facility in my hometown. Rather than pay quick visits to a number of different places, I want to focus on this one place, Red and I can get to know the staff. Through the blog, we sent everyone gifts and messages for Christmas, we are doing the same thing for Valentine’s Day, and hopefully for Easter (11 S. Union St., Cambridge, N.Y., 12816). I will do more of this work in the coming months than I did all of last year.
5. I am working with newly arrived immigrant refugees, several hundred of whom have made it to my area before the new President’s virtual shutdown of immigration this week. Through the blog, I am helping raise money for their immediate needs. Hundreds of people have joined with me in this undertaking.  These good people are not stereotypes, they have not come to harm us. Maria and I will also help publicize and write about and work on a refugee art show being planned for March 30 in Albany, N.Y. I plan to teach English and literacy to them (I am a literacy volunteer) and also mentor a family. With permission, I will photograph them and write about their lives.
6. Maria is going to India in February to teach the victims of sex trafficking how to make her very beautiful and popular potholders. I will do everything I can to support this trip. So have many of you.
7. In my writing and my life I will work to promote listening and communicating, rather than arguing and raging. I truly hate whining, I just can’t abide it, and every time I peek on social media, I hear this vast chorus of whining, like a billion bees circling over my head. Everyone thinks they are a victim. Here is the self-righteous part: I have to refrain every day from writing or saying messages that go like this: shut up, stop whining and go out and do something.
8. I will continue to teach my writing class, it is an extraordinary experience to see people find their voices and free their inner spirits through writing. I have been trying to figure out how to teach writing for many years, I am getting closer, thanks to a wonderful group of people who trust me, fight with me, inspire me.
9. I will continue to use my blog – now with about four million visits a year – to do good, to unite rather than divide, provoke rather than insult, inform rather than preach, and seek out common ground. The animals might be the path. Nobody fights about Red or Fate. Through the animals, through the dogs, perhaps we can learn once again how to love and listen to one another.
10. 10. I am not a victim, and will never be one. A distant relative wrote me to say she knew I had had a terrible time with my divorce and open heart surgery, and I said nothing could be further from the truth. I am nothing but happy, and am lucky beyond my imagination. Life happens to all of us, in one form or another, and the refugees I meet and see remind me of what suffering really is. Few complainers in America can come close, even when elections don’t go their way.

There are other things on my mind, on the Summer list, but I think this is enough for now. I have a good friend who keeps asking me how she can survive all of the challenges to her values and beliefs. We can’t – perhaps shouldn’t – take on the system. One person at a time. One idea at a time. One good deed at a time. The human scale. I will not surrender to despair or lament.

I talk to many good people who differ from me, and while they sometimes puzzle me, I do not hate them and will not argue with them We are holding together the sometimes frail threads of humanity. I am very hopeful, people are waking up on both sides, defining their values. I hope to do much good this year, that is my way of staying grounded and living my life, and I will never turn my life over to politicians or arguments.

I am grateful to my beating heart. It defines and guides me, for all that it has been through, and for all that I have put it through We are opening up to life together.