RE: Optimism at the End of the World 5 : How to make metaphorical lemonade (we skipped #5, oops)
Enjoyed reading your writeup. The world would be a better place if each one of us cared for our environment. Unfortunately, it's only a very small percentage of people that are even concerned about how we humans are destroying it.
On New Year's eve I went to the bakers' to pick up the cake we've ordered. I stepped out of my car and there was a man standing there. His clothes were dirty and he looked undernourished. I felt bad and offered him some money. He took the money and I was walking away when I heard someone say "excuse me" from behind.
It was the same person. I said, "yes?" He responded, "I'm glad God still creates beautiful people."
I thanked him and left but those words touched me. For some reason, I couldn't stop my tears.
Later, I had the urge to meet him and I did many times after that. He told me that he worked in an executive position and is well educated. Now I sit with him and talk to him when I have the time. I learn a lot from him. He talks about philosophy, Tolstoy's works and everything under the sun. He was a blogger at one time. He now calls himself a yogi.
What saddens me is that I am the ONLY one that talks to him. One day he said to me that I made a difference in his life.
It is this that makes life worth living.
Thank you for a wonderful post!
We are not as few as you may think. Most people care to some degree, they just don't believe they can make a difference. That's one of my focuses in this blog series, trying to help he people who care realize that they do matter, sometimes waaaaaay more Han they think.
Don't get tricked into thinking we are few. Also, it's important to note that the majority just follows others, so there is that critical mass effect. I read a study before, I can't remember much about it but it said something like most big changes in culture reach a turning point and explode once they reach something like 2-5% the population. We can do that！I think we are already there but we need to be more confident that we matter and discuss to consensus about which direction we want to go and how to do it.