Last night, I sat on the old couch in my darkened living room and looked out the window through the tall trees at the sky beyond. There is was again, the wishing star and I pondered again what I am really wishing for. I thought back to my time on Cape Cod as I had similar thoughts. There, the trees, used to more constant wind, were shorter. Here, they were tall, and some were damaged by the passing of Hurricane Irene. Nearby, there was a tree that had hit the power lines, which is why the living room was dark.

The wish remained unformed. Besides the hurricane, it has been a time of great turmoil. Political campaigns are starting up and I’m feeling the call. Underlying my work, politics, and this blog is a desire to write something meaningful, something contributing to the greater good. What is the best way to do this? I’m not exactly sure, but instead of some of the polemics we see online so much these days, it seems like a core theme to writing should be to tell stories of people helping other people.

This is something I’ve written about a bit in the past. I wish more campaigns would write about how the candidate would enable and encourage people to show compassion to those around them, something like a cross between “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men” and perhaps Zimbardo’s Heroic Imagination Project.

My mind wanders to Sandi Lynn. Sandi writes a blog, Pregnant with Cancer. Back in 2007, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma two weeks after finding out she was pregnant. The blog talks about her experiences; she has been in remission since 2008, has a wonderful daughter, and is now studying to be an oncology nurse. The other day she tweeted, “had my very first end of life, comfort measures only cancer patient today. I hope that I made a difference in hers or her families life.” Later, she tweeted, “I walked by the room Friday and the room was empty. Kind of a sad feeling.”

If we are going to be talking about reforming our health care system, we need to be having the sort of discussions that Sandi talks about, and not political rants from one side or the other. We need to be exploring how we can bring greater caring to the people around us.

The sun is shining today. When I left home, the power was still out. We’ll see if it is out when I get home. Meanwhile, I deal with the other stressors in my life, and still try to better form that wish to write something meaningful, something contributing to the greater good.