Something Important

I had a birthday this week. Nothing new, of course, I’ve had a bunch of them. Sometimes it’s barely acknowledged and sometimes it’s celebrated with friends who either like me very much or know how to put on a pretty good show. Regardless of how the big day is spent, the basic outcome is still the same: I feel time slipping through my fingers and I wonder why I’m not doing anything important with my life.

It isn’t that I expect to eliminate hunger in Africa or stop the violence in the Middle East, but…well, actually, yes, it is those things. Okay, I’m not unrealistic; I know I’m not Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. But I want to make a difference in the world. And yes, I’m familiar with the old “act locally, think globally” axiom, but that just doesn’t cut the mustard (see How to Make My Couch into a Happier Place, August 14) with me. I have very high standards (as evidenced by my obsession with Matt Damon) and it just isn’t enough to man the phone lines for a woman I think will make a great president or to write a check to the American Civil Liberties Union or to give a homeless man a buck and a half.

I recognize that we all have different beliefs and different things are important to us, but, like Rodney King, I wonder “can’t we all just get along?” I sometimes think world leaders make problems seem more complicated than they have to be, but I also know that I have a tendency to be a bit naïve, so I can’t always see how the world’s issues have spun so far out of control and appear to be virtually unfixable. It seems to me that most opinions can be reined in to a middle ground, and that compromise can help to resolve our troubles. And if that’s too naïve, well, call me Blondie and wash the whiteout off my PC monitor. We should all try to bear in mind the ancient advice to refrain from criticizing others until we’ve walked a mile in their shoes.

It’s like the time Matt was on Will and Grace, playing a character named Owen, who, although straight, was auditioning for the Gay Men’s Choir. His ultimate motivation was a free trip to Europe, yes, but at least he tried to see what the world was like for a gay man. In an ego-fueled altercation with Jack McFarland, he was reminded that Aretha Franklin once told her costars on a VH1 concert “No one interrupts the Queen of Soul, bitch,” but he lobbed the ball right back over the net with “I believe she also said “Get out of my light and get away from my snacks, bitch!” So you see, he was trying.

Matt is also involved with some fairly impressive charities. He’s supported and worked with Sunrise Children’s Village (offering a fresh beginning for orphans and disadvantaged children in Cambodia), the Elisabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, The Hole in the Wall Gang (providing a no-fee summer camp experience for children suffering from serious illnesses), Team Harmony Foundation (motivating young people to combat bigotry while promoting respect for diversity) and the Boston AIDS Walk.

I guess I can content myself with the fact that, even though I haven't done anything important with my life, I'm obsessed with someone who has.