I was thinking about your question

I was thinking about your question and I don’t have the best answer, but let me try.

Let’s assume you do in fact not know anything that can not be more effectively conveyed by someone else. 

Under this assumption, you sit and doubtfully wonder, if there are better sources for knowledge than you, is there value in sharing what you know with other people who are trying to help animals?

My friend, I understand this doubt, I’ve felt it myself.  But I think I need to call you out. While some level of doubt is healthy, this particular one is a bit silly. 

To demonstrate this, let’s ad some absurdum up in here. 

A son asks his father, “where do babies come from?”, the father wouldn’t answer, “you know son, I’m not the best source for that knowledge, I think it would be best you ask an obstetrician”.

You’ve always been so humble and it’s an attribute I admire but I think it’s important to remember, humility is not thinking less of yourself,  it is thinking of yourself less. Your doubt that sharing what you know holds no value, is not humility, it is insecurity. You know too much and there are too many people who need help for you to not share all that you’ve learned.

You will never know how truly large an impact you helping others will have. Consider who ever shared the idea of leafleting with Matt Ball. Consider who shared it with them. You may not save a billion animals, but you might help someone get to a point where they could.

If the idea of the impact you could have, isn’t convincing enough for you to shake this doubt, consider that most everything you know was shared with you for no cost.  I think its fair to say, you have a responsibility to pay it forward. Take a breath, and remember what you took should be given back. 

I remember you telling me how you learned to swim. It was your best friend’s mom. She saw you thrashing about without effect in the shallow end in a pattern fairly similar to the standard front stroke. You were trying for forward motion but just didn’t understand what you were doing wrong. She came over, took a few seconds to check out your technique and said “silly goose, close your fingers”. With seconds of her time, she taught you to swim. You closed your fingers, and suddenly all that effort, led to forward motion. I want you to remember that story whenever  you doubt how helpful you might be to others. You have so much to share and when there are so many people thrashing about, having someone like you help them make forward motion could be all the difference they need.

Your friend and fellow activist,

Em “I don’t have the best answer, but let me try” Heppler