"Change We Can Believe In." "Change We Need." "Change!"
We have all been bombarded by the word CHANGE. Our world needs change, economies need change, political propoganda of Obama's campaign is all about change. Change has become a brand. Something like the whole "go green" concept. Want to sell something? Slap the word change or green on it and it's almost worth guaranteeing a fair profit.
Now before you begin drawing assumptions of me having a resistance to change or thinking that this article has anything to do with our election, rest assured I'm most accepting to change and the use of Obama's slogans are merely a worthy example. My purpose here is to explore change with you. What is change? What can be changed? How can it be changed? Why is change needed? How can change benefit our immediate circle of life? Or is all this use of the word change more like painting a pretty picture that could never be our reality?
So, I've been asking myself these questions for a while now and just found myself lost. There are too many things to change and most of them I couldn't see having a direct effect on my community, my "world" or my "circle of life." I believe change is to benefit those around us and improve the quality of life. Then I stumbled upon something worthy to inspire change. Google created
Project 10 to the 100th which encourages people (anyone) to share their ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible.
I looked further into it and thought, where do I begin? I figured the best way to make a difference, to create change is by finding out what's wrong and what can be improved. I remembered a quote by Henry David Thoreau, "could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?" I had to take others opinions into account. I decided to start small and surveyed the 350 contacts in my phone with the following questions:
What do you think would make this world a better place? Where you live (your city, community, etc.) a better place? What do you think is wrong or could be changed and how would you change it?
As much as I had hoped that responses would help feed a clearer idea of what can be done, sadly responses were limited. Only 18% of the persons surveyed responded with a concept, 8% felt that change should just happen and the rest just didn't respond. How discouraging! Made me wonder if change is really wanted or if people are just on the change bandwagon. However, the responses I did get were based on the future of society which lies within the children of today's world. How we could change society if we teach children simple values and morals such as respect, consideration, manners and humility.
Hmm... Maybe creating a program to show children how they can cultivate these values would be a good idea. Maybe implementing this program in schools? Then again, how many children really pay attention to their teachers? Or practice what they learn outside of school? This is what change would have to be... for US to learn and cultivate these values ourselves so that others may learn from us... so that our future may benefit from the very things we've tried to instill. After all, haven't we all heard the phrase "teach by example" at some point in our life? Isn't it time we apply this to our lives?
This is my Project 10 to the 100th, my contribution to social enrichment, to help myself and others find a way to make the world a better place by instilling basic values and morals as a part of our every day life in hopes to increase the level of respect between one another, amongst ourselves, knowing the true meaning of integrity and developing compassion and empathy for our neighbor(s).
This is my next step, asking the 1000 of you (MUL): What do you think would make this world a better place? Where you live (your city, community, etc.) a better place? What do you think is wrong or could be changed and how would you change it?
In the words of Theodore Roosevelt, "great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind."
All in all, this is just some Food for Thought.
Hope you all have a great day and find something you can change for the better.
- Miss Susy
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