“We are not great shots across the bow of history; rather, by simple grace, we are hints of hope.” – Steven Garber
It’s easy to feel paralyzed by the enormity of the challenges in front of us. Three crises on top of each other, each one compounding the other. It’s a lot.
Add to that the fact that, unlike prior eras, we see it all happening in real time. Perhaps nobly, and perhaps out of a kind of grandiosity, we want to change the world. Because the world is playing out over the supercomputers we carry in our pockets.
The humble change-maker longs for the world to be changed but also knows her limitations. Yes, she writes and advocates and learns. But she knows that there are limits to the power of a hashtag. At some point, talk is cheap. It’s not concrete enough.
So that change-maker doesn’t fool himself that these actions are enough. He gets very concrete with his actions. He starts with his very own community. His family, his neighborhood, his workplace – the spaces he inhabits every day. He notices the unnoticed. He cares for the vulnerable. He uses concrete action for the people in those spaces – and for the people who are not.
If changing the world is too much for us, let’s start by changing our neighborhoods and workplaces.
