It's not

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better,
it's not."

Ted is a young boy who, in order to impress a girl who lives on his street, sets out to find a real live tree to plant in his city made entirely of plastic. In doing so, he finds a story, a tragedy, even larger than he thought even possible--the story of the destruction of an entire race of trees and the integrity of a man.

But's not just that the trees need to be saved. There are many, many things that need to be saved. Many, many things that need to be stood up for. Many, many things that need to be heard.

Many issues that a single person needs to be willing to stand up for.

Many wars that could be won if only one would be willing to get up and utter a declaration.

Sometimes it takes a loud voice--someone to speak out to large numbers of people, to thrash their way through the jungle of discriminating opinions and unrelenting prejudice.

Sometimes it only takes a whisper--someone to dip their toes into the ice-cold lake while everyone else stands on the dock watching with eyes wide.

But regardless of what it takes, wars cannot be won without someone to fight them.

See, the thing is, the trait that I most wish that I possessed is courage. Courage to do things like stand up and fight a war despite the ever-raging storm of opposition, or raise my voice against an injustice.

My gift, as I'm learning, is my openness. My genuinity. My ability to live the way I am and not pretend that I am anyone else, that I believe in anything else.
 The oppositions that we face are very clearly laid out in the open, and I believe that the strengths that I have been given were specifically designed to fight these things.

This has been a commonly recurring thing in my life lately. Like I'm standing on the edge of a cliff watching a battle down below, fully suited up and unable to find a way down into the fray.

All I can do is stand and wait and watch. And hope.

Lorax: "Which way does a tree fall?"
Once-ler: "Ummm...down?"
Lorax: "A tree falls the way it leans. Be careful which way you lean."

And be careful which way I lean. Because if I care a whole awful lot and lean the wrong way, just as the Once-ler did, I'm still going to end up sad, tired, and alone.

Full of regret, and wishing that I had done something different--something little along the way.

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better,
It's not."

And even if someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
unless you stand up and lean the right way,
things still won't get better.
They won't.

But I find myself all-too-often standing at the edge of the cliff, at the back of a crowd, at the corner of the room, wishing I could say something--forever standing on tiptoes trying to be a little bigger, trying to be a little braver.

So here I am:

Does anyone have any suggestions? How do I get bigger, braver, more involved?

How have other people managed it?

Does anyone else feel this same way or am I just psychotic (I very clearly understand that it's a possibility)?