Broader Concerns
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
My sister, Naysha, and I were talking about just this the other day. For me, this is what life is all about. I was telling her I was watching my Oprah 20th Anniversary DVD's which I had started watching 2 years ago when I got them for Christmas and never finished and that there was this young girl in Africa just 14 years of age living in a hut with walls covered with cardboard, cooking a meal for herself and her 8 year old little sister. She was saying they live alone and that she is her sister's caretaker because both their parents died of AIDS. She said they both go to school and when she can't be there, the 8 year-old stays by herself. And in all the telling of her story, that's when one single tear fell from her eye. She very matter-of-factly, stoicly, just wiped it away and kept cooking because the girl is clearly doing just what she has to do, the right thing, period, end of story.
So, when my parents (or anyone for that matter) refuse to make their relationship work so that our family works to its highest potential, they give energy to a negative thing instead of using that energy to help that little kid in Africa (or in our own country, for that matter) and that's what I have finally gotten ... that by being part of that, I have been focused on the wrong thing.
In a nutshell, I believe the world needs us who have so much in the U.S. wayyyyy too much for us to be so concerned with our pride. I can't imagine that ever being more important than helping out a needy child. It just seems SO small a way to be. So, yeah, broader concerns, that's where my mind and heart have always been and where my actions now finally are. I have never been more at peace.
My sister, Naysha, and I were talking about just this the other day. For me, this is what life is all about. I was telling her I was watching my Oprah 20th Anniversary DVD's which I had started watching 2 years ago when I got them for Christmas and never finished and that there was this young girl in Africa just 14 years of age living in a hut with walls covered with cardboard, cooking a meal for herself and her 8 year old little sister. She was saying they live alone and that she is her sister's caretaker because both their parents died of AIDS. She said they both go to school and when she can't be there, the 8 year-old stays by herself. And in all the telling of her story, that's when one single tear fell from her eye. She very matter-of-factly, stoicly, just wiped it away and kept cooking because the girl is clearly doing just what she has to do, the right thing, period, end of story.
So, when my parents (or anyone for that matter) refuse to make their relationship work so that our family works to its highest potential, they give energy to a negative thing instead of using that energy to help that little kid in Africa (or in our own country, for that matter) and that's what I have finally gotten ... that by being part of that, I have been focused on the wrong thing.
In a nutshell, I believe the world needs us who have so much in the U.S. wayyyyy too much for us to be so concerned with our pride. I can't imagine that ever being more important than helping out a needy child. It just seems SO small a way to be. So, yeah, broader concerns, that's where my mind and heart have always been and where my actions now finally are. I have never been more at peace.
Labels: Change The World, Quotes
posted by Narah at 10:01 AM
