Steve,
I really, really feel the heart of what you're saying, the concern about all the PWP who suffer alone, who need so much. I think about them all the time, and god bless you all who don't feel so overwhelmed that you can find ways to reach out to whoever you can.

I've heard of some societies in other cultures where if somebody in the community is sick, everybody works on it with them every day until they get better. In other words, sickness in one person is not seen as separate from everyone else, but recognized as a problem for all. This is so different from the way that the sick are isolated in our society, and foolish, too. If people are getting ill from pesticides, the sooner everybody looks at that, the better because it's going to hit them or theirs some day. Not to mention the humane quality of embracing the stricken among us. As I said in another thread, I've been trying to read about AIDS activism lately because it offers some very good ways of doing things. I think about many of my friends in NYC who devoted a day a week working for GODS LOVE WE DELIVER, bringing cooked meals to AIDS shut-ins.

My problem is I still feel so overwhelmed about trying to deal with my own life and body, that it seems as though I don't have enough to give. I think this when I think about political activism in general. That's why I've decided that the first and best thing I can do is to get myself better, any way I can. That way I will have the strength to help people. Plus anyone that truly can get this monkey (no offense intended to our primate buds!) off their backs, will truly inspire people. It's great to endure suffering with grace, and that carries its own inspiration, but really overcoming this thing is what will lift people.

So I've come to regard my body as my personal Darfur, as it were, the stage which I have been given to battle darkness, and hopefully whatever I can achieve there will eventually be of great help to somebody, and hopefully I will gain enough energy back to minister directly to others in need.