I think I need a helmet. Or a beer. Or a beer helmet.

Seriously, folks.

I have this class on Thursdays where we discuss healthcare issues on the larger scale, and for the past few weeks we've been discussing the insurance system and who gets healthcare and how, and tonight we also discussed the ramifications of privatizing health care. It's really interesting stuff, but it's also really frustrating because you leave the class thinking: man, the world really really sucks and there's no good way to fix it. There's so much injustice, it just blows my mind.

Now, for someone who is usually pretty happy-go-lucky and tries to avoid the news because she enjoys the bliss of ignorance, I've been fairly preoccupied the past few weeks with things like poverty, health care, social security, gun control, and how to raise our children better. Basically, in the past few weeks, I've been thinking about how to change the world. It's a little bizarre for me to be so fixated on it, but I have definitely found myself thinking about these topics a great deal. But for me, a what-you-see-is-what-you-get, heart-on-my-sleeve, bring-it-on kind of girl...well, I want to make everything OK. And I can't, and it has been weighing heavily on me lately.

I was discussing it with Brianna tonight, and there are two ways to approach social change...wait, OK. Let me back up. We were concerned about the idea of privatizing health care (and social security, for that matter, but health care was foremost on our minds since that is our line of work and the main topic for our class we just had) and how we could fight against it. I told her that I had lost hope, mainly because I felt that so many people tried so hard last November to cause a change in our government to prevent these kinds of plans being brought up in the first place, and we still failed. Now here's where the two mindsets come in: the first is to say, well, we tried our best and it didn't work, there's clearly nothing we can do. The second is to say, look how hard we tried, and we did make a change - more people came out and voted than ever before, and more people were aware of the importance of how much a vote counts, and even though we didn't get what we wanted, we did cause change, and we have to take that attitude and keep trying...harder if we have to...and we'll continue to make steps until we do make the change we want. Losing some battles, but eventually winning the war. Right now, and for the past few weeks, it just seems so hard that I've been of the first mindset. But I'm going to try really hard to be of the second mindset, because I'm a big believer in the idea that if you're going to complain about something, you also have to be doing something about it or you can't complain in the first place. Besides, health care is something near and dear to my heart, not only because of my job but also because of the whole arthritis thing, and so this issue matters A WHOLE HECK OF A LOT to me. So here I am, as I'm typing this blog, changing my attitude. Yeah, it's frustrating that there are no easy answers, and I'm not saying that if we don't privatize health care everything is going to be perfect, or that I have the way to make it perfect. I don't. But in my humble opinion, it's a bad idea, and nothing good can really come of it, and I'll fight to prevent the bad from happening. At this point, status quo is not great, but it's better than getting worse, you know?

I have a wise friend who once said something to the effect of, "Life is tough. Deal with it, or get a helmet." The quote was in the context of a conversation we were having about his classmates at his fancy-schmancy, high-power, high-pressure school, and how they took some things way too seriously. He said he wanted to buy them helmets, because if they got that uptight about the little stuff, life was just going to hit them upside the head and knock them out. In class tonight, I asked the professor if we could bring in beer next week if our classes were going to continue like this, because it was really hard for me to leave every Thursday feeling so discouraged, and the beer might take the edge off the class. Tonight as I was leaving, I thought of my friend, because I really felt like a helmet might make me feel better, because life is so complicated and it distressed me so much.

Now that I think of it, I think I'll just combine the two. Next week I'll show up to class with one of those helmets that holds beer cans with tubing that runs to your mouth so you can drink and not have to hold your beer in your hands. That way I know I'll be safe. =) And in the meantime I'll be gearing myself up to do what I can to change the world. Little old me versus the world. BRING IT.