Compassion and Making a Difference

This post is kind of lengthy, and for that I apologize.  I believe strongly in what I have to say and I feel the need to share it.  I'm seriously going to try and revive this blog now as well.

on to my real post...



     Today I decided to read all of the articles in my newest issue of the Smithsonian magazine I've subscribed to.  While reading, I noticed a trend among the successful people in the articles: compassion.  Pardis Sabeti is one of those successful people.  She is known for her work in genetics and what genes are advantageous to combat lethal illnesses.  The major thing I picked up on while reading though, was her eagerness and drive to do something good for the world: to make a difference.  She says at the end of the article, "My kind of, like, goal is to help train students to be good people as well as good scientists."
     Bryan Stevenson, in the article about his efforts to represent and protect children from receiving the same penalties for crimes as adults and to protect people from receiving the death penalty, makes the connection that we only view the death penalty as okay because we think we have found a humane way to do it.  We wouldn't rape someone as punishment for their rape crimes, and we wouldn't assault someone as punishment for their assault crimes.  So why do we think it's okay to kill people, regardless of their crimes?
     This is a question I personally have struggled with.  It makes more sense economically to kill someone versus sentencing them to life imprisonment, but does that justify the murder?  I'm not so sure.
     Too many times we have justified or looked away from things that would be considered wrong if not for the economic benefit.  I think our societal view on economy has desensitized us to that which is truly important: our morals.
     It is human nature to make mistakes, but is it not human nature to also want to help others if the opportunity arises and we are aware and capable to help?  I think it is.  This is shown by the general public when the truth comes out about how some beef cattle are inhumanely slaughtered, when we hear stories of those civilians affected by civil war in some other country, or when we hear the stories of orphaned girls in China when their parents desert them because they wanted a boy.  It's these personal heart-wrenching stories that reach us and make us want to do something.  It's those things that bring out our compassion.
     We have become subdued by all of the material things in this world, money being probably the main one, and by the idea that one person can't make a difference.  Let me make one thing very clear.  One person, yes even you, can make a difference.  You can.  I can.  Your crazy aunt can.  Your college roommate can.  Your best friend from third grade can.  You know why?  Because you already have.  You are.  You will continue to for the rest of your life.
     Think about all of the people you've met.  Okay, now name 5 people who didn't impact you in some way.  It doesn't have to be a profound way.  They could have impacted you just by being friendly upon meeting them for the first time.  Or maybe they weren't friendly.  That's an impact too.
     If other people impact you so easily, then why do you think you're the anomaly?  Why are you the one who can't make a difference?  See where I'm going with this?  You can make a difference; you have no choice really.  Do something positive with it.  Bring back compassion.
     Random acts of kindness go through stages of where it's "cool" and "popular" to do things of that sort, and then there are times when it's rare for them to happen.  How sad is that?  How lost are we that an act of kindness is cause for such surprise?  It should never be some big shock, because we should all practice kindness.  We should all develop our sense of compassion.
     So many studies have shown that helping others, whether it be children, adults, or even animals, makes people way more happy than money ever could.  So why is society still so focused on money?  Does money ever really make you successful if you harm people in the process?  Are you successful if you look away during horrible atrocities in order to increase your profit?  Are you successful if you could easily help someone, but just choose not to because it would be unpopular to do so?  No.  No you aren't.  So please, wake up!  Don't let society's standards and ideas subdue you.  Help make the world a better place because you can.  All you need to do to start is help bring back compassion to our world, one person at a time.  Lead by example.  When people see what you're doing and how it affects you, they will follow.  It's what we do.  Be the ripple in the water that grows and grows until the whole world is washed in that same water.  Let's help the change!  Be compassionate and make your difference meaningful.

This I Believe

I recently found something I wrote my freshman year of high school.  I really enjoyed reading it again, so much so that I thought I'd share it with you:


This I Believe
     I believe in conservation.  I believe all animals and plants have an important place in this world and are here for a purpose.  I believe mankind has been given the task to protect this extraordinary world and wildlife within it.  And I believe we are failing, horribly failing.
     My love for animals has been present as far back as I can remember.  My mother says that one of the very first books I picked up was a book called "Baby Animals" and even though I could not read it, I immediately loved the book.  I was one year old.  By the time I'd finished kindergarten I was already doing a little reading from various animal books that I found, and in 1st grade I even wrote a story about animals in a circus.
     Third grade was a big year for me.  I read books like The Call of the Wild and White Fang.  My heart went out to the animals in those books; I wanted to jump  in the book and bring justice!  I wanted the people who hurt these animals so badly to pay fro what they had done.  I wanted to explain how much respect those animals deserved.  I wanted to learn, to learn more and more and more.  I begged my mom to buy me every animals encyclopedia and book I saw.  I began tracing pictures of animals; reading about their habitats, prey, predators, lifestyles, and everything else I could possibly find out; I sat for hours and hours and just read and learned.  I make a binder specifically for my "animal research" as I called it.
     That love I had as a young child has never left me; it has only gotten stronger and stronger throughout the years.  Today the wildlife on this planet is in serious trouble.  Even though there are many people who care, many efforts to help, I know that a lot more needs to be done of the environment is to thrive like it should.
    I believe that I can be a leading factor in the recover of wildlife.  My plan for my life involves learning even more about this world and everything living in it.  It involves giving wildlife a chance and educating as many people as possible on its importance.  I believe the animals and plants were put on this earth by God, not for us to use and abuse, but for us to take care of and live peacefully with them in this magnificent place.  This world is an extraordinary gift that we have been given, and I plan to do all I can to restore its beauty, its magic, its wonder.  Everything that captivated me as a young child, I want it all to be there, for generations and generations to come, so that one day my children's children can point to a bird flying high in the sky or a deer running through an open field and say with amazement, "look at that," and I can look back on my life and remember all I did to keep this here, for them.

Unity

Once again, I have read something in A Sand County Almanac that has caught my attention.  Here is an excerpt from the book starting on page 67:

     "When some remote ancestor of ours invented the shovel, he became a giver: he could plant a tree.  And when the axe was invented, he became a taker: he could chop it down.  Whoever owns land has thus assumed, whether he knows it or not, the divine functions of creating and destroying plants.
     Other ancestors, less remote, have since invented other tools, but each of these, upon close scrutiny, proves to be either an elaboration of, or an accessory to, the original pair of basic implements.  We classify ourselves into vocations, each of which either wields some particular tool, or sells it, or repairs it, or sharpens it, or dispenses advice on how to do so; by such division of labors we avoid responsibility for the misuse of any tool save our own.  But there is one vocation--philosophy--which knows that all men, by what they think about and wish for, in effect wield all tools.  It knows that men thus determine, by their manner of thinking and wishing, whether it is worth while to wield any."

I find this very interesting.  Man has made himself a kind of "god" over the earth around him:  deciding where to plant new life, and where to take it away.  Our whole society seems to revolve around this.  It is true that our jobs are a division of the "original pair of basic implements."  These divisions, like Aldo Leopold said, make it easy for us to avoid the responsibility for the misuse of other tools in different divisions.  We are only concerned with our own tools, and not as concerned with what others are doing.  We sometimes get the attitude of, "well, I did my part.  I'm not in control of the other parts and it isn't my job to make sure they are doing the best they can with their tools."  In reality, wouldn't it be best if we all worked together?  Shouldn't society work in an informal checks and balances system?  One part does its job in cooperation with the other parts, and it depends on the other parts to do their jobs the right way.  Shouldn't we call out those who are misusing their tools?  Shouldn't we be concerned when others are wasting our precious resources, even if it doesn't directly affect us?  If you think about it, everything that is done in this world affects us one way or other.  It doesn't have to directly affect us; there are many indirect effects of other's actions.  We should want to make the world a better place.  We should want to help others when they need it.  We should want to be mindful and respectful of our earth and all of the resources it contains.  We should be the ones who make others see just how strong of an impact they make.  Many reasons for misuse of tools today stem from lack of education about the tools.  Shouldn't it be our moral imperative to inform others?  We have to work together in our society.  We shouldn't be so tunnel visioned and focused on our own lives that we just look over and around everyone else.  Let us all work as one society.  Let us all be creators and destroyers, but let us be those things in a balance that will positively affect the world around us.  Let us be one.

Be the Ripple, Change the World

     Recently, I have read Aldo Leopold's fantastic book A Sand County Almanac.  It has inspired me to write this blog.  If you have not read this book yet, I suggest that you start.  Don't try to read it all at once, for that is too overwhelming, but read it one or two essays at a time and reflect on what you think and feel about the words.

     I am going to start with an except from the book:

             "The erasure of a human subspecies is largely painless--to us-- if we know little enough about it.  A dead Chinaman is of little import to us whose awareness of things Chinese is bounded by an occasional dish of chow mein.  We grieve only for what we know.  The erasure of Silphium from western Dane County is no cause for grief if one knows it only as a name in a botany book." (pg 48)

     This is so typical for us as human beings.  Today's culture is so self-serving and unaware.  If you really think about this quote, maybe you can begin to see where Mr. Aldo Leopold was coming from.  If you were to hear of a "dead Chinaman" and you were American (I'm not picking on any one culture, for this hypothetical situation can be applied to them all) with no knowledge or awareness of anything Chinese other than the "Chinese food" that you eat, how would that death affect you?  I don't think it would, for how could it?  You don't know about this person's life.  You don't know if this man had sons or daughters or if he was the only one left in his family.  You don't know if he was considered a nuisance by others or if he was a hero.  You don't know enough details to feel connected to the death.  Even if you knew all of the details though, could you still really feel the loss without knowing the man personally?  I think not.  The only ones who can truly feel the loss are those connected to this man.  The sons or daughters left behind, the mom and dad, the brothers or sisters, those are the ones who can truly feel the loss.  The friends and coworkers, they will feel the loss as well.  They will be the ones grieving.

     Even though you cannot truly feel the anguish from the loss of this one life, should you still grieve?  It would seem heartless to some if your answer to that question was no.  The point, however, is that we do only grieve for what we know.  If a Silphium plant, as is discussed in the book, is stuck in a losing battle should we sit by and do nothing?  Would you sit by and watch a stranger die?  You may not know the importance of all the species of plants and animals, but does that give you the right to sit back and watch them all disappear?  No.  It doesn't.  Plants and animals contain a life force.  If you believe that life is something to fight for, something worth saving, why would you sit by and watch so much destruction?  Do something!  Let us raise our voices together!  We must be the change, for the world will not change without someone stepping up!  Let us lead!  We may be young, but we have ideas; we have hope!  A ripple in the water starts out very small, but over time it grows and grows.  That ripple is us!

Joy in a Death?

I wrote this back when the news had just released the details of Osama Bin Laden's death.  I want you all to really think about the quote.  Martin Luther King Jr. was a magnificent man with brilliant thoughts.  His voice is worth listening to, even though he is no longer here physically with us.


"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, I can feel relief, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. 'Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."--Martin Luther King Jr.

What a triumph it is for the United States of America!  Osama Bin Laden has been killed.  While many people are celebrating his death, and maybe rightly so, how appropriate is it for us to be happy about such things?  A death is a death.  How can we be so happy in the face of such destruction?  A human life!

Child-like

There are some things in life that are much more enjoyable when you're a child than they are when you're older.  Things like playing in the snow and using your imagination to play with your "imaginary friends."  As we grow up, we forget what it's like to experience these moments of bliss.  We forget the joy of simplicity.  In our modern world, our lives are complicated in just about every way they can be.  We worry and fret over the little things, and we leave little time for using our imagination they way we used to.  Sometimes, we need a little break.  We need to schedule ourselves a day for play.  A day to enjoy the simple things in life.  Enjoy the nature.  Walk outside and see how the glorious sun shines radiantly down upon us, feel the warmth of its rays.  Feel the gentle breeze of the wind as it moves past us on its way to a new destination.  Smell the scent of the rain as a cool shower approaches, or smell the lovely mix of sweet flowers blooming in the early spring.  Watch as the little bees move to and fro, pollinating the plants and making their honey.  Fulfilling their niche in our circle of life.  We need to relax, pretend that time is standing still, and just take in everything.  We need to remember what it's like to be a child.  We need to unlock the cage we keep our inner child in and let it out, let it breathe.  We tend to suffocate our inner child with all of our daily worries, forgetting that we need to let everything that bothers us go.  Face our fears, do what we can to fix our problems, and then let it all go.  Children let things go easily.  They fall on the playground, cry hysterically for 5 minutes, then magically move on with their lives.  When a friend makes them mad, they may act out or cry, but once again they move on in a timely fashion.  As we get older, we forget how to move on.  We let things pester us, hide from our problems, and fill our lives with so many things that we never have time to let everything go. 
    Children love to use their imagination.  When things go wrong, they can mentally create something to fix their problem.  That could be an imaginary friend, or a monster to fight, or a game to play that will cheer them up.  As we grow we forget our imagination.  We think "that's a silly idea," or "I'm too mature to play pretend." We make so many excuses for ourselves that we justify the neglect of our imagination.  Almost like using our imagination is a bad thing.  What we really need is to use our imagination again.  Who cares if it makes you look silly?  If it makes you happy, what's the harm in playing pretend every now and then?  Remember when you used to play outside?  You were an explorer, discovering a brand new jungle with new exciting animal species.  Or maybe you were a doctor and you only had an hour to save your friend's life.  Or maybe still there was a secret puzzle that you had to solve in order to find a hidden treasure.  Remember the pure joy pretending brought you?  Why would you not want to do that again?  How long has it been since you've been as happy as you were when you were younger?  Sure there are things in our lives now that make it harder for us to feel our inner child, but that child is still there.  We grow up and move on with our lives, but we haven't lost our ability to imagine.  Is it not ironic that some of the most inspiring stories are stories of young children doing things to make a difference?  You know why that is?  Because children haven't faced that so-called "reality" of "I'm too small to make a difference in the world"  Children believe they can do anything, because when they imagine, they can.

Snow Days

     These past few days, I have noticed a trend on Facebook statuses.  We've been out of school, due to the unusually large amounts of snow we recieved, and at first people were happy about it.  There were statuses that said things like "SNOW DAY!!!!!!!"  or "yes!! finally!!  a day to relax!!"  As the day wore on, people became restless.  It's like they couldn't figure out what to do with the extra time they had.  Statuses turned from joyful to "I'm bored."  I'm sorry, but how can one possibly claim to be bored after being so excited for relaxation a couple hours earlier?  Are we so disconnected from our families that we can't stand to be with them, enjoying the time we have together due to circumstance?  Are we so busy in our normal lives that we don't know what it feels like to relax?  How dreadful it must be to be stuck in a house surrounded by people that love you and care for you.  How dreadful it must be to have time to actually interact with such people.  How dare Mother Nature grant your wish of a snow day, cursing you to a full day of "boredom" instead of a day complaining about how much you hate school.  It is a snow day, enjoy it!  Take pictures, create memories.  Marvel in the natural splendor of Mother Earth.  See the beauty, the glistening snow in the bright sunshine.  Time is a gift.  Don't spend it complaining about your blessings.  One day, time will come to an end for all that you care about in life.  You'll wish that you had done more.  You'll regret those days you wasted being "bored."  Enjoy the simplicity in life whenever you get the chance.  For simplicity is a rare occurance.  Don't forget to stop and smell the roses, watch an eagle soar through the bright blue sky.  Feel the rush of the ocean.  Don't blink.