I'm Aida Limone and this is The Slowdown.

Right now, I admit to feeling at a loss for how to make the world better, how to help

within my community.

It seems like it should be simple and yet, as we all know, it's not simple.

Non-profit organizations have so many hidden strings, direct money has consequences,

even volunteering or offering service can sometimes be more complex than it seems.

There should be a better way to offer something, anything, to people who need it, and yet

no transaction is uncomplicated, no relationship is without a power dynamic, and help isn't

always what we think it is.

It's something I don't have an answer for, but it's something I want to keep exploring

as I find ways to serve.

Today's poem does the tricky work of exploring the nuance of offering aid.

I love how this poem moves and how it allows room for many truths.

Another attempt at rescue by ML Smoker.

The time is important here, not because this has been a long winter or because it is

my first at home since childhood, but because there is so much else to be unsure of.

We are on the brink of an invasion.

At a time like this, how is it that when I left only a week ago, there was three feet

of snow on the ground, and now there is none, not even a single patch on in the shadow

of the fence line.

And to think I paid a cousin $20 to shovel the walk, he and two of his buddies still smelling

of an all-nighter arrived at 7 a.m. to begin their work.

...