This is a brief little book for overcoming what we’ve been told is a monstrous problem—even, according to some, insurmountable. That better not stop us from trying: the only thing that can make it really unsurmountable is not trying.

At a memorial service for my father, who pioneered library computerization (he may have been difficult as a dad at times, but he was unquestionably brilliant), I learned from people who had worked with him that when they got stuck trying to perfect a phase of a project before they moved on to the next phase, my father would say, “It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be good enough.” This was something I’d already been saying fairly often myself, and it was nice to learn that I might have inherited something from my dad besides a hot temper. The same is true of our healing projects: they don’t have to be perfect, they just have to be good enough. His collaborators also said that he was the rare idealist who could put his visions into practice and bring them into the world, and I don’t think we have to let that quality be rare.

There’s a Spanish expression, “aportar mi grano de arena,” meaning literally “contributing my grain of sand,” or more loosely, “doing my part.” None of us can bring the whole beach, but working together we can accomplish even the most ambitious goals for humanity, including dismantling the kyriarchy entirely and replacing it with a loving community of equals—the “beloved community” the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke of—each of us in harmony doing our part. This little book is just one grain of sand.

Or it might be that we’re just trying to plant seeds here—whatever metaphor works for you. Some seeds may fall on stony ground, but others may fall on fertile soil and bear beautiful flowers and fruits. Nothing and no one is the be-all and end-all of even anything, which is why we all have our own grains of sand to bring and our own seeds to plant; if anyone ever tries to persuade you that what they’re selling—including themselves—is the be-all and end-all, run! Everyone’s got at least one grain of sand of their own, and their own garden to tend—and it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be good enough. You don’t need a fancy-schmancy design on your drum or the very coolest rattle made of genuine natural materials, either. Anything that works for you is good enough.