Tag: change the world

Involved or Committed??

There’s a popular quote from John F. Kennedy that says. “one man can make a difference – and that every man should try.“

Pretty epic wisdom if you ask me. If I suddenly start to care more about the environment my individual impact isn’t going to add up to much. But if my neighbor starts listening to me and then his neighbor listens to him by the time we get 10 houses down were starting a trend.

There are two problems with that quote. We only got a small portion of the entire statement and perhaps the biggest blunder, JFK probably didn’t say it or at least historians haven’t been able to find proof that he did. The more likely author of that quote is his wife Jacqueline Kennedy for a piece on his memorial Library in 1964.

Here’s the entire quote.

“John Kennedy believed so strongly that one’s aim should not just be the most comfortable life possible, but that we should all do something to right the wrongs we see, and not just complain about them. We owe that to our country, and our country will suffer if we don’t serve her. He believed that one man can make a difference – and that every man should try.“

I read that statement and by the end thought to myself. Holy crap where has this entire quote been hiding for more than half a century and why was the last sentence singled out as the most valuable?

None of that matters now, I’ve read it and now you have as well. WHAT ARE WE/I GOING TO DO ABOUT IT??? You cant Ctrl, Alt Delete that from your memory bank. We/I need to live that mission every single day as the success of our planet relies on our collective work now more than ever.

Relentless dedication to something small…

There are about a half dozen ideas I have that kicking around in my head on how I can change the world or better yet things I like to complain about but haven’t taken enough time or effort to do something about. 

I’m ready to do something about that now as I realize that I am not fully living up to the words that Jacqueline graced us with. Sure I feel like I am an involved and conscientious member of this planet but being halfway committed to change isn’t going to cut it anymore.

Lets each pick one small thing we are passionate about and make a promise to each other that we will take action daily to educate ourselves, speak up about injustice and rather than complain about it we will work towards building a stronger global community.

Call to Action

Have you ever heard of the parable of inviting the Chicken and the Pig To breakfast? The chicken will bring eggs to breakfast, he is involved as he can come back again tomorrow. The pig on the other hand is committed, when he brings home the bacon he isn’t coming back tomorrow.

Go out there and be the change the world needs and get out there and stay committed. Change is hard and dirty work but lucky for us pigs like those sorts of things. 

who can change the world.

“One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.”

John F. Kennedy

So not to brag but I am an O.G Facebook user (15+years) not sure how proud of that I am but I figured I would put it out there. Today I got one of those memory posts that came across my feed from 9 years ago today and it was the above quote from JFK. I’ve always loved that quote, I just wish that I could remember why I posted it almost a decade ago.

Fast forward to today and that quote means more to me now then ever. We are in truly uncertain times right now and the stress of this global situation is weighing heavily on everyone, me included. I get busy with work, the kids, making dinner and then you see a news report about all the bars closing in your state for a month and then it hits you right in the gut again, this is going to be a long and bumpy ride.

The only thing that gives me solace in those low moments is that although limited we can have an impact on how this chapter of our life’s plays out over the rest of 2020. The actions that we take in this early phase of covid-19 could significantly speed up or slow down the spread of the virus. This is where you and I can make a difference and we rally need to put a little effort into this.

I have always believed two things when it comes to government. The divine sovereignty of the individual is the fundamental building block to western democracy. The second is to never follow blindly anything the government is trying to sell you, having a healthy level of skepticism helps keep things in check.

Now is not the right time to stand on those principals. If the federal government, CDC and your state at local government is asking for you to stay home and self isolate it’s not just to keep you out of a bar so you can keep your St Patrick’s day drinking to a minimum. They are doing it to slow down the exponential growth pattern that viruses like this one tend to follow. Just for a reference point here’s an exponential growth pattern.

2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512 and 1,024. Everything is pretty manageable in those first 5 iterations but it starts to get out of control really quickly in that last 5 of the sequence. Research on the virus has suggested that it doubles every 3 days, so that sequence above is 2 peoples impact played out over a period of a month.

I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be the person responsible for making 1,000 people sick in a month. If that means I can’t go to the beach or a restaurant for the foreseeable future I’m good with it. I want this thing to be over just as much as anyone right now so we can get back to “normal” its up to us how long it takes.

If we all fall in line and do as we have been asked maybe this thing blows over in a couple of weeks and everyone can tell me they were right and I was an idiot for being so worried. In fact I hope your right and I can take the insult, I’ve been called a lot worse then that in my life. But maybe we keep this rebellious streak working and the math starts to add up and were stuck in our houses until August then what?

Here is our chance to live the message. One person can make a difference and if we all try the results could be huge.