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Ok, we all know the deal. This is an end-of-year email from a nonprofit, so you know I’m asking for donations. But, this email has so much more. Like, my favorite line of poetry! And the best advice I ever got! And a golden ticket! And also, if you have the ability and you haven’t already contributed, a gift to Lutheran Settlement House would really help.

One of my favorite books of poetry is The Country Between Us by Carolyn Forché. The last poem is called “Ourselves or Nothing”, and I think about the final lines often. “It is either the beginning or the end of the world, and the choice is ourselves or nothing.”

In many ways this has been a hard year, and I’ve often felt a real heaviness. Too much violence, too many people having to fight for basic dignity, too much cruelty. And yet, I just can’t believe that it’s the end of the world. I remind myself to remember all the people who are helping. I look for all the people who are turning away from that great void of nothing, from cynicism and despair, and instead choosing all of us.

I completely stumbled into non-profit work. I had other plans for myself and had never even considered social services. And then I signed up for a long-term volunteer position, living and working in a shelter, mostly because I had some time to spare before applying to continue my studies.

During my orientation, the director of the organization looked at me and said, “Is this experience going to be something you pull out for stories at cocktail parties, or are you going to allow this work to change who you are?”

There it is. The best advice I ever received. Connect, and allow that connection to change you. Even when that connection brings you closer to suffering. That connection changes us in profound ways as we come to recognize the incredible capacity for strength, compassion, and joy in others, and in ourselves.

That’s the golden ticket I want to offer you. (I know that in “Willy Wonka” the golden ticket came with a chocolate bar, but let’s be honest, I definitely ate the chocolate bar). If you believe in what we do, I invite you to connect in 2026. Come volunteer, come to an event, come for a tour, let’s grab coffee, let’s chat over Zoom.

If it’s not the end of the world, it must be the beginning. Let’s be part of this beginning together.

Happy New Year,

David Chiles

This story is part of Every Day at Lutheran Settlement House, a new series featuring stories from our Executive Director.

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