Please welcome today’s guest writer, Paul Menn. Paul graduated Calvin in 2010. He is currently living in Milwaukee, WI as he works towards obtaining his juris doctorate from Marquette University Law School. He is engaged to be married next summer. Follow his blog at http://sojournerscafe.
“Despair is for people who know, beyond any doubt, what the future is going to bring. Nobody is in that position. So despair is not only a kind of sin, theologically, but also a simple mistake, because nobody actually knows. In that sense, there is always hope.”
– Patrick Curry from Defending Middle-Earth—Tolkien: Myth and Modernity
When you look around the world, what do you see? When I look at the news, all I ever see are stories about wars, refugees fleeing their homelands, people being exploited, people struggling day to day just to survive, and on and on. There is a lot of pain, sorrow, and despair in the world. In our interconnected world, the endless feed of horrific and depressing images from all around the globe can lead you to think that there isn’t a lot of hope.
I am currently in law school, and once every week or so, I volunteer at the Milwaukee Justice Center (MJC). It is a free clinic located in the courthouse basement staffed entirely by volunteers. It offers a few free basic legal services for those who can’t afford to hire an attorney. Needless to say, every time I am there, the waiting room is packed.
And I see so much despair whenever I walk in at the start of my shift. I see it in the eyes of the young woman who has been abused by her boyfriend, but the police have done nothing to help her. I see it in the eyes of the father who just wants a few more hours a week to spend with his children, but his ex-wife is doing everything in her power to stop him. Single mothers working two or more jobs to support their children because the father doesn’t pay his child support. The man who needs to reduce his child support because he was just laid off. The people who feel overwhelmed by the justice system, who don’t feel like anyone will listen to them, and who don’t know who to turn to. There’s a lot of pain and despair in that basement room.
But do you know what else I see? I see students, paralegals, and attorneys who show up week after week to donate their time, even if just for a few hours, simply to help out those in need. Just to sit down with those who are overwhelmed and to try to ease the burden in whatever way they can. Five days a week, 8:30-4, year round (excluding holidays or when there is smoke damage from when a fire burns part of the courthouse), the MJC is open.
A lot of what I do at the MJC is just listening to people tell me their stories while trying to think of how I can help them. Most of the time, all I can do is help them fill out some paperwork, tell them the next steps in the (seemingly) endless legal process, and send them on their way. It really isn’t all that all that much, but more often than not, people leave with less frustration and pain in their eyes. I don’t know if I’d say that I gave them hope, but I maybe helped them back to the path to realizing that there is some hope in life. At the very least, I eased their burden for a little while.
Of course there are bad days. Every single volunteer has had at least one person yell at them and/or storm off in a rage. But those are the exceptions. Most often the response is one the genuine appreciation. Appreciation that somebody took time out of their busy schedule to help them. That somebody cares enough to actually listen to whatever problem in life is dragging them down.
It is easy to despair. Likewise, it is easy to become so insulated from the world and wrapped up in our own busy complicated hectic stressful imperfect lives that we fail to see those around us who are truly despairing. Take time to inspire hope, in whatever small way you can, because the world has enough despair in it already.
“Hope is a bird
With wonderful feathers
Sits on the boughs of the soul
And sings the song of how to remain alive”
-Abdul Wahab al-Bayati
Paul (’10) lives in Grand Rapids with his wife, Emma (’10), and cat, HandsomeMarcoCat. He loves board games, Babylon 5, and honey-curry chicken. Everything else is negotiable.
Good, good work. Keep fighting the good fight, Paul.