Dear Prudence,
I used to volunteer 4-to-5 hours a week at a local food bank. Mostly stock shelving and bookkeeping related stuff. It felt good to help out, there is a definite need, and I was working with like-minded good people, or so I thought. Towards last May, somehow politics came up, and I mentioned how I never vote in presidential elections because I believe the electoral college system is fundamentally unfair, since the individual voter’s fraction of an electoral college vote differs from state to state. I also added that I did vote for a republican in the congressional representative role and for two of the local political candidates, for fiscal policy reasons.
Two days later I got an email saying to never come back, that they did not wish to associate with conspiracy theorists, and they were glad that I was never front-facing. I worked with these people for years and somehow my “conspiracy theories” never came up, probably because they do not exist.
Since then, I’ve had extra time on my hands. And I know that I ought to find somewhere else in a similar role to volunteer, get back on the community outreach and help wagon again. I still think it’s important, and there is still a definite need. Every time I think about it, I lose all energy to continue and get angry about how idiotically tribalistic they were at the place I used to help at. And it’s been close to six months and I still haven’t gotten around to it, even though I keep telling myself “yeah, I should start again soon.” How do I regain my motivation?
— Trying to Regain the Spark