Dirty Hands - revisited
Apr. 20th, 2025 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
michaelboyFor all of our armchair quarterbacking and posturing, the greatest good may actually come from getting our hands dirty.
Mother Teresa made a significant impact to the entire world -- greater than most might ever imagine, but it wasn’t because she posted the coolest memes which suited her ideology or conversely finding ones that condemned another’s. Instead she founded the Missionaries of Charity which gave “wholehearted service to the poorest of the poor” Of course, one could argue against several of her individual principles, but endemically as humans we will always have differing philosophies and fortunately just as deserving of love.
So if you want to see change in the world, live your life as a demonstration of what is right in you. Someone may actually take note of it, be correspondingly inspired and find a desirable change in themselves because of it.
Help a neighbor shovel a walk, or take someone who can’t drive to the grocery store, mow someone’s grass, collect gifts for needy, tend to the sick, donate clothes, sponsor an AA meeting, edit a résumé, volunteer with kids or old folks, help someone sort out mathematics, their taxes or retirement planning, put in a light switch or an electrical outlet, or even teach someone to paint.
One of our greatest gifts is that we ALL have special talents to share and by investing a small amount of time doing these things each week, your personal rate of return, on any discounted basis, will be positive.
And you may get peed on by handling a toad, but you won’t get warts from it.
* * *
"Quand tu veux construire un bateau, ne commence pas par rassembler du bois, couper des planches et distribuer du travail, mais réveille au sein des hommes le désir de la mer grande et large."
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Mother Teresa made a significant impact to the entire world -- greater than most might ever imagine, but it wasn’t because she posted the coolest memes which suited her ideology or conversely finding ones that condemned another’s. Instead she founded the Missionaries of Charity which gave “wholehearted service to the poorest of the poor” Of course, one could argue against several of her individual principles, but endemically as humans we will always have differing philosophies and fortunately just as deserving of love.
So if you want to see change in the world, live your life as a demonstration of what is right in you. Someone may actually take note of it, be correspondingly inspired and find a desirable change in themselves because of it.
Help a neighbor shovel a walk, or take someone who can’t drive to the grocery store, mow someone’s grass, collect gifts for needy, tend to the sick, donate clothes, sponsor an AA meeting, edit a résumé, volunteer with kids or old folks, help someone sort out mathematics, their taxes or retirement planning, put in a light switch or an electrical outlet, or even teach someone to paint.
One of our greatest gifts is that we ALL have special talents to share and by investing a small amount of time doing these things each week, your personal rate of return, on any discounted basis, will be positive.
And you may get peed on by handling a toad, but you won’t get warts from it.
* * *
"Quand tu veux construire un bateau, ne commence pas par rassembler du bois, couper des planches et distribuer du travail, mais réveille au sein des hommes le désir de la mer grande et large."
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
