You've Got the Whole World in Your Hands

Navigating Empathy and Action in the Information Overload Age

I worry our phones have become mobile trees of knowledge that banish us from fertile grounds of our own limitations. We eat with every scroll; our eyes light up and we, too, are like God. We’ve got the whole world in our hands.

We see snapshots of
dead kid after grieving mother after
bomb video after politician’s statement after
dead kid after grieving mother after
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce after this scarf is every celeb’s must-have after
dead kid after grieving mother after
Italy vacation guide after best workout for bigger glutes after
dead kid after grieving mother after
dog has maternity shoot after Justin Bieber divorce?!? after
how to make a million dollars after Kate Middleton conspiracy after—

Well… after our own lives.

You know, the seventy-something years you and I might have that are customized with unique problems plus working a job and being a good person and making friends and paying bills and drinking enough water and stuff.

How can we be present to our lives when every suffering in the world is instantly and visually available to us? I don’t think we realize how unnatural it is to be flooded with trauma after trauma as we sit on the toilet at 11am on a Tuesday.

The principal of proportionality would say there is a good side to this accessibility: Our “enemies” have faces. We see them on TikTok. We watch them laugh with their families. We learn about their dreams and what they studied in college and we realize everyone is human just like us. Violence is not insulated anymore. I have seen the faces of actual children who have died this week. I have watched real mothers drop to their knees in grief.

This is good. It exposes the realities of violence and who suffers the brunt of it— real children, real parents, real people. The potential for goodness exists. I hope it leads humankind to crave peace.

And? And…

I told my friend on a walk in the Fall, “I cannot live like this another 50 years.” I cannot continue to live without hope. To have zero imagination for a better future. To have no faith in the goodness of humanity. I do not want to dig my head in the sand or act like nobody is suffering in the world, but the truth is, all I can realistically do is call my representatives and give money to aid organizations. Those are my limitations.

I cannot keep ingesting the violence with my human heart sponge. I’ve seen folks share videos with “DON’T LOOK AWAY” in all caps… and I know what they’re saying. I know why they’re saying it. I have felt that way before and desperately wanted to see change and stop the bleeding. But I cannot, day after day, minute after minute, be thrust into such a great and violent despair. I cannot keep looking at brutalized bodies and stacks of dead children and videos of mothers falling to their knees then jump into a content planning meeting for work. It is not because I don’t care- I do. I desperately do.

It’s that I have a 3-pound brain that is at capacity. I have to embrace my limitations or I will drown in despair. And it isn’t fair that I get to look away while other people get bombed. It isn’t fair that I scroll from a coffee shop in the suburbs when others have to ration a cup of water each day. If I think long enough about this, it makes me sick to my stomach- that I am undeservedly safe and free.

AND

I keep coming back to this question: What is in my control to do? How can I be a loving global citizen and loving friend, church member, wife, neighbor, and co-worker?

I just looked at the data for this document and it says I started writing on October 24th. I’ve been processing this for five months. For several of those months, I was truly drowning. I felt like the weight of the world was crippling me. I understand (and deeply grieve) why Aaron Bushnell lit himself on fire. I understand the helplessness, the powerlessness, and the anger. Then, when my own life had several come-aparts, I was brought back to my reality. A couple funerals and life changes will do that to you. And I realized how many months it had been since I was truly present to my own life. Present to the people in front of me. Aware of my body and breath. This might be strange, but I looked at my dogs in the eyes one December morning and thought, “How long has it been since I slowed down and actually noticed you?”

I think one reason I’ve neglected to share this is because I don’t want it to come across as a defense for apathy. We cannot only worry about things that directly affect us. As Christians, we are called to show solidarity with those who are suffering: “Just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.” While we cannot do everything, we can do some things and it’s important to do what’s in our control to promote justice and love and peace.

At the same time, I want to be in this for the long haul. Part of that, for me, is naming the effect of technology. For the first time ever, we are DAILY encountering global violence, catastrophes, wars, complex systemic problems, famines, etc… and our brains are not equipped to handle it. Our brains are not armed with the resources to care about every single issue without going insane. This does not make us bad humans. This makes us ordinary humans. Anyone who says otherwise is not being honest with themselves. Nobody on this planet cares about everything because nobody on this planet has the capacity to care about everything.

To regain my sanity and, quite frankly, my hope, I have limited my news intake drastically. I don’t doomscroll. I reach out to my representatives regularly (via phone and/or email) and donate to organizations (here is one I recommend but I’m sure there are many others). I pray. I ask the Spirit to guide me. To keep me alert. To keep my heart soft. And then I focus on being present to my life and the people in it- giving myself to my husband, friends, neighbors, town, county, and state.

It’s helping. I am starting to find an imagination again… one shaped by the Spirit and God’s just Kingdom rather than endless, click-baity news articles. I don’t write this to prescribe a fix for you, or even to say I am doing things right. I am just sharing to let you know you’re not alone if you’re processing this, too.

Sending all my love!

-Savannah

Writing Prompt: Does technology ever pluck you out of reality and keep you from being present and active in realistic ways? How? When do you notice it most?

Recommended Action: Donating to Churches for Middle East Peace or World Central Kitchen.