understanding there is always hope, a possibility of making a difference.
here is a story to illustrate my point:
a man was on vacation in a tropical location, the cayman islands or something similar. he was walking along the beach one day and the shore was littered with starfish. the high tide had washed them in and the low tide had left them behind. this happens often, and many are left to die in the heat.
as he walked along he noticed an elderly gentleman struggling his way along the shore, bending down slowly, picking up a starfish, and throwing it back into the water. the man on vacation made his way up to the elderly gentleman and asked him what he was doing.
“what does it look like i’m doing?” he reponded.
“well sir, there are thousands of starfish up on this shore, you can’t simply save them all. you don’t need to do that, your going to hurt yourself, it really doesn’t matter.”
the elderly man moved on to the next starfish, threw him into the water and said, “well, it mattered to that one,” and continued down the beach.

there are millions of worldly woes, but that just means there are millions of ways to make a difference. “think globally, act locally” was the motto for a teacher of mine. every little bit helps.