I do not need to shout at people who disagree with me,

as I do not wish to treat others in  a way I would not wish

to be treated.

I do not need to argue my  beliefs on Facebook or Twitter,

or answer the enraged people whose technology has sucked

their manners and perspective  out of their tired souls.

I do not need to watch the news 10 times a day,

to see what outrages other people have committed,

so I can be upset about them, and fume and stew.

I do not need to feel morally or politically superior

to other people, because I am not.

I know nothing, really, about how the world actually works,

and little about anything else.

I need to listen and learn rather than shout and judge.

What I need is to do good in some way, big or small,

every day.

What I need is to see the face of a refugee mother who can move

her children into a clean and safe apartment in America, so they

can all really  begin to heal.

or a proud and anguished refugee woman who can buy new clothes

for her children for the first time in years.

What I need is to see the gratitude in the face of an elderly woman in eldercare

who cannot afford to buy underpants, when I hand them to her in a plastic bag.

What I need is to hear the laughter of refugee children when they ride

the big slide in a water park,

or get new shoes to wear.

What I need is to take a beautiful photo every day of the

year, and and share it with the world.

What I need is to open myself up to the world and  reach inside

of me, to write, and write and write, until I can’t write any more.

What I need is to do good rather than argue about what good is.

What I need is to keep good alive.

What I need is to visit my good friend Ed every day that he asks me too,

until the day he dies, if that helps him in any way.

What I need is to be grateful for my wife, my farm, my dogs, my work,

my friends and my life.

I don’t need to shout at anyone who is different from me.

I don’t need to tell anyone I am better than he or she is.

This is what I need.