RECONCILING with THE CITY

This is kind of in response to the question about prioritizing when there are so many problems. I am studying to be a inner city school teacher and was reading the book "Star Teachers of Children in Poverty." The author brought about a great point that I will continue to hold on to as I go in to teaching in the inner city. The author said that many times we will confront situations that are hard to handle and deal with (this can be all people, not just teachers). He said you have to be able to look at the situation and ask yourself "can I help or be of benefit?" If you can help, do what you can, and if not you need to continue to walk on. He mentioned the importance of not getting emotionally caught up in the problems that you can't fix at that moment because it will cause distraction from helping others and burn out. He mentioned this because he has seen so many teachers get burnt out and overwhelmed by the situations they faced. We need to help where we can and continue to walk forward in the event that we can't help, because there are many other people who need help and support that we can help and influence. At first this seemed cold to me, yet when I think of the massive amount of disorder and heart ache people are dealing with in our nation's cities and even in N. Mpls. it can get a little overbearing so it makes sense to me. It will help me from becoming so overwhelmed that I miss opportunities where I could have helped because I am agonizing over the one's where I could not. Any more thoughts?