People often believe they are incapable of change or of making a difference in the world around them. It seems that as children and young adults, we often possess a profound desire and indeed a need to better our world and we believe very deeply in our ability to do this. Somewhere, during the course of our lives, we become disillusioned, distracted, caught up in the minutia of the every day. We lose this hope, this drive to leave a positive mark on the world, or we lose the ability to see ourselves and our actions, however small, as a force for good.
I want, today, to share with you two stories of people that I know who did this despite being "just one" person.
Last weekend, my friend Peter Leibovitch passed away. Peter was a labour leader, an agent of social change and an advocate for justice for people without a voice. Most importantly, he was a father to Jacob, Joe, Steve, Michael, Sam and Danielle. Though I came to know Peter as a child, it has been sometime since I last saw him. I remember him very fondly and I remember very vividly Peter being at my parents’ home the day Nelson Mandela was released from prison. The house was filled to the brim with people for a family gathering; CNN was on, broadcasting Mandela’s release. Peter came in to the kitchen, took my mother by the hand and said “you HAVE to come and see this.” I remember this because his passion for this monumental event and what it represented for Mandela and the people of South Africa was so overwhelming it was contagious – it filled the room and the people in it.
Peter was truly a man of great integrity and courage. He understood that when one of us suffers, we all suffer; and that when you empower people, you empower society as a whole.
He also understood that the desire to alleviate the suffering of others and to achieve justice transcends religion, race, gender or any other manner in which we “classify” people. There are many people in this world that would do well to take a page from Peter’s book in this regard.
Nearly three weeks ago now, my friend and neighbour at the cottage Zane Brown passed away after a very difficult battle with brain cancer. Zane embraced this diagnosis with courage, grace, dignity and humour. He remained positive and thankful for the love he had been able to share and the love that had been given to him during his too brief stay on this earth. His attitude, dignity and courage will forever remain an example to me in my daily life.
Zane was an accomplished man, having served the federal government for 37 years. He volunteered his time with the Hamilton Literacy Council to empower people in his community by giving them the gift of literacy. He gave his time to community service organizations that supported Hamilton’s most vulnerable residents. Above all else, Zane was Irma’s husband for 44 years and Carl, Eric and Kathryn’s Dad.
I first met Zane as a child; he was a friend of our family – most importantly he and his wife Irma were the very best friends of my Aunt Jane and my cousins Patty, Mary, Paula and Danny. Like Peter, Zane was much older than I but someone who left an impression. Zane and Peter were both people I knew my Mother liked and respected very much, which even as a child told me something, as she was(and is) not easily impressed.
Zane was an exceptionally bright man, to be sure -a man capable of intelligent conversation on an inordinate number of subjects. Despite this, Zane had no airs, no conceit and no arrogance. He was a warm, friendly, compassionate man who was fully engaged when he spoke to you – he had time for everyone. I recall someone sharing a story with me several years ago about how loved and respected the children he volunteered to teach golf to.
In my opinion, Zane’s character is his legacy.
This week, as I was thinking about these two men, their lives and the impression they made on mine, I also had the occasion to read Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, as part of a school requirement. As he responds to his detractors from jail, King says “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects us all directly.” I believe this is a sentiment both Zane and Peter understood. Moreover –they understood that their actions, however great or small, had the capacity to change their world. They knew that the time "just one" person spent serving others was indeed time well spent.
What does this mean to you? Well, tomorrow is Social Good Day. This initiative, conceived by Mashable and (RED) – is aimed at using social media to engender social change and encourage solutions to the pressing issues facing our world. The goal is to initiate conversations and bring communities together to generate ideas; harnessing the power of social media for social good. Tomorrow hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of “just one” will contribute to moving the world forward.
We are inextricably linked to one another in this vast world, and we have a duty to help the most vulnerable among us. Tomorrow, in honour of Peter and Zane’s legacy, I’m going to dedicate my thoughts to how I believe we can better the world, together. In the days after tomorrow, I’m going to remember that my actions (and your actions) can indeed be a force for change in the world and give my best to live so that my character is my legacy.
I hope tomorrow you can join me in doing the same in honour of someone you admire and respect – ideas can change the world; “just one” person is capable of doing the same.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
An old one, but bears re-posting
Today got me thinking about....
How fragile and tenuous our time is on this earth and how so many people waste that time trapped in fear or anger.
How unfair and arbitrary death and illness are. Just random really, and like the lottery no one knows when their number will be up. This is something we are all aware of, yet we waste so many precious moments of our lives wrapped in fear, anger, and regret or stymied by others’ ideas about who we are. We forget to say and do the most important things and expend far too much energy and time on things that, at the end of our days on this earth will be of little consequence. We worry about what others will think of us if we say or do those things that we hold in the smallest recesses of our being: our secret thoughts our secret hopes, our secret dreams and aspirations. We confine ourselves to a prescriptive notion of how we ought to live our lives that often reflects very little of whom we are.
We should wake every day and choose to be happy because ultimately it is a choice – a path only we can choose for ourselves. We should do whatever it takes to make that happen.
We should plan for and chase our dreams and goals and aspirations even if others tell us they are foolish or unattainable.
We should never live a moment of regret for all the things we might have done – for these things all remain possible so long as our hearts are still beating. We can choose to put one foot in front of the other and take the first step in that direction.
We should always take the time to say the things that are important, even if they are frightening, or put us out on a ledge from which we may not be able to climb back in, or risk us getting hurt.
We should always follow what is in our souls and listen to our hearts, in any, any situation we should be true to ourselves, what we believe and know to be right and true. We should never fall victim to someone else’s definition of who we are because truly, only we know in our hearts who we are – what makes us, us.
We should never let someone tell us what we ought to do and what we ought not to do or who we should be or not be. We should never let someone belittle our dreams and we should never do the same to anyone else. It is the spiritual equivalent of putting a pillow over someone’s head.
We should appreciate each moment, each breath that we take on this earth, each time we see the sun again and feel its presence on our skin, each time we drive with the windows down and the wind twists our hair, each time we get caught in a rainstorm and are thoroughly soaked to the bone. Each time we take part in a still and silent snowflake ballet.
Each time we feel love with a strength that is irrepressible, each time a stranger returns a smile, each time someone wraps themselves around us with a fervor that says, without a word, they have committed their soul to ours.
Each time we fall asleep on the warmth of an afternoon beach or to the drumming of rain on a tin roof, each time we feel the bliss of doing absolutely nothing or the triumph of achieving something great.
Each time our face hits the dirt, for it gives us the chance to pull ourselves up and start again.
Each time we are blessed with the laughter of a loved one or the rekindling of a friendship eclipsed by time.
Each time we wake, open our eyes and draw another breath, because it is the very embodiment of promise and potential. Each new day’s dawn, whether we see it or not, provides us another opportunity to paint our souls, to mark our presence on this earth in a way that holds meaning to us.
Most importantly, we should never forget to love those close us, no matter how painful or disappointing it may be at times. Our capacity to love is perhaps the greatest gift given to us – and we should never leave an ounce of it unspent.
How fragile and tenuous our time is on this earth and how so many people waste that time trapped in fear or anger.
How unfair and arbitrary death and illness are. Just random really, and like the lottery no one knows when their number will be up. This is something we are all aware of, yet we waste so many precious moments of our lives wrapped in fear, anger, and regret or stymied by others’ ideas about who we are. We forget to say and do the most important things and expend far too much energy and time on things that, at the end of our days on this earth will be of little consequence. We worry about what others will think of us if we say or do those things that we hold in the smallest recesses of our being: our secret thoughts our secret hopes, our secret dreams and aspirations. We confine ourselves to a prescriptive notion of how we ought to live our lives that often reflects very little of whom we are.
We should wake every day and choose to be happy because ultimately it is a choice – a path only we can choose for ourselves. We should do whatever it takes to make that happen.
We should plan for and chase our dreams and goals and aspirations even if others tell us they are foolish or unattainable.
We should never live a moment of regret for all the things we might have done – for these things all remain possible so long as our hearts are still beating. We can choose to put one foot in front of the other and take the first step in that direction.
We should always take the time to say the things that are important, even if they are frightening, or put us out on a ledge from which we may not be able to climb back in, or risk us getting hurt.
We should always follow what is in our souls and listen to our hearts, in any, any situation we should be true to ourselves, what we believe and know to be right and true. We should never fall victim to someone else’s definition of who we are because truly, only we know in our hearts who we are – what makes us, us.
We should never let someone tell us what we ought to do and what we ought not to do or who we should be or not be. We should never let someone belittle our dreams and we should never do the same to anyone else. It is the spiritual equivalent of putting a pillow over someone’s head.
We should appreciate each moment, each breath that we take on this earth, each time we see the sun again and feel its presence on our skin, each time we drive with the windows down and the wind twists our hair, each time we get caught in a rainstorm and are thoroughly soaked to the bone. Each time we take part in a still and silent snowflake ballet.
Each time we feel love with a strength that is irrepressible, each time a stranger returns a smile, each time someone wraps themselves around us with a fervor that says, without a word, they have committed their soul to ours.
Each time we fall asleep on the warmth of an afternoon beach or to the drumming of rain on a tin roof, each time we feel the bliss of doing absolutely nothing or the triumph of achieving something great.
Each time our face hits the dirt, for it gives us the chance to pull ourselves up and start again.
Each time we are blessed with the laughter of a loved one or the rekindling of a friendship eclipsed by time.
Each time we wake, open our eyes and draw another breath, because it is the very embodiment of promise and potential. Each new day’s dawn, whether we see it or not, provides us another opportunity to paint our souls, to mark our presence on this earth in a way that holds meaning to us.
Most importantly, we should never forget to love those close us, no matter how painful or disappointing it may be at times. Our capacity to love is perhaps the greatest gift given to us – and we should never leave an ounce of it unspent.
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