The Work On Purpose workshop series immediately demanded thoughtful reflection from the moment we sat down to chow down on our Reginelli’s. The topic at hand was Moments of Obligation. For those who don’t know, a moment of obligation occurs when you witness a social injustice and feel moved to do something about it.
“These moments can be walked away from and forgotten forever, or they can be turned into action, igniting change in your life and in the lives of all those affected by the problem. Whether or not we choose to act on those moments is a primary factor in determining the amount of impact our lives and our work will have on the world around us.” This quote truly struck me as I realized that whether or not I ignore an issue that really matters will determine how fulfilled I feel in life as well as how much of a difference I make in the lives of others. I don’t want to squander the time, money, and energy I’ve funneled into my education. As a sophomore, I have quite a few interests, but I have yet to focus in on exactly what I want to work on. After my experience at the first Work on Purpose workshop, I have high hopes that this series will help me do just that!
Also, check out this video by Echoing Green about moment of obligation.
So, how about you? Comment with your moment of obligation below!
I think that recognizing moments of obligation is something that we are not asked to do often enough. When I first read this I was struck by the thought that perhaps I had not ever had this moment before…but then I realized I was searching in my memories for something a little bit too dramatic. With a little bit of thinking, I came up with a moment that happened recently while I was studying abroad in Peru. My program director is the founder of a NGO that donates essential goods (toiletries, school supplies) as well as support to an orphanage in the province of Cusco. She took our group there, as she takes all of her groups there, to see the site and to stand in the place of donors as we give the gift boxes to the girls in the orphanage. I would say that the entire experience was a moment of obligation for me. I felt deeply uncomfortable the whole time because I was participating in an all too common scenario in which the privileged foreigners give to the poor locals and in return the locals perform dances and songs that they had worked hard to prepare for our arrival; it was the standard voluntourism scenario. Although I would like to continue working towards solutions to this problematic system of aid, this moment of obligation pushed me to focus two of my final papers for my semester abroad on voluntourism and how we can better those practices.
I think this is really interesting! As Lilah pointed out above, moments of obligation can be overlooked, but when revisited, can help one reassess their involvement with social-justice issues. This is incredibly important and necessary in order to stay present and involved in support of social justice, and is vital to the concept of social innovation in that it lays the foundation for having a more empathetic and community-based service.