If We can Change Ourselves, We can Change the World
After almost a week of focused
reflection, sheltered from the distractions of city life by miles of national
forest wilderness, our small group of philosophy students came together in an effort
to generate practical ideas to preserve
the natural world and that special part of ourselves which it embodies. Relentlessly we worked through numerous
suggestions to reduce over-consumption, only to arrive at the unsettling
conclusion time and again that the voice of the media--the soap box of the rich
and powerful--would drown out our quiet pleas for sanity.
"We need a leader,"
one practical philosopher surmised. "We have to fight fire with fire; get
our ideas in the media," another
begrudgingly admitted. However, to this critical crew of thinkers, none of
these ideas provided the hope and inspiration that we so desperately
needed. A cloud of gloom so dense it
was tangible descended upon us. A
feeling of hopelessness crept into the circle despite the best efforts of these
optimists to ward it off.
In an act of self-defense we
turned to our only remaining hope--self-empowerment. We started a list of actions we could take in our own lives to
make a positive change. Starting slowly and then gaining in enthusiasm, we
added items to our list. Setting our
goal at ten, we generated well-considered ideas and committed ourselves to
integrating them into our daily routine.
Some individual adjustments to our group goals were necessary to fit our
ideas into each person's lifestyle, but our shared commitment gave us strength.
Like a lightning bolt, the power of our pact shredded the gloom and vaporized our feeling of hopelessness. We felt powerful and in control. We knew that if we could change ourselves, we could change everything.
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Avery McCombs