Everywhere I look, I see the need for repair. The scale of what is broken is so great I feel overwhelmed when I try to think through what I can do about it. And once I feel overwhelmed it isn’t long before I feel panic-stricken and paralyzed. Considering our vast problems always leads me to a place where I know if I keep on struggling and fretting and striving and planning, I’ll end up unable to function. So I remind myself that if I want to change things, I need to remember what I’ve learned while teaching in prison. I have to give up any idea of being effective and getting results. That improvement program must go and in its place I need to simply concentrate on writing and teaching in the hope (but not the expectation) that repair may follow. May. I can’t guarantee it will and I can’t force it.

But I have hope that it might.