When I thought about the quote for the first time, I was trying to come up with something that I can do for numbers of people living in developing country like what Novogratz did: investing money in companies or organization which try to help people in developing countries. But, I realized that the approach requires time and commitment, and it is not easy for me and others to take the approach even though it is ideal to do that. And then, I remembered our high school motto, "Love your neighbor as yourself" and thought this could be the first step to make a better world.
I went to a Christian high school in Japan and I learned a number of great teachings of Christianity even though I am not a Christian. At our high school, we had short services twice a week. During the service, we read the bible and listened to a lecture given by minister or teachers. One of the parts of the bible they often talked about was "Love your neighbor as yourself". This is also our school motto as I mentioned above. What our school wanted to teach us through this part of the bible was that we d all should love who we are and help people around us in need. It seems very simple things to do, but I think not many are actually doing this.
So why do we need to love ourselves to make a better world? The simple answer is that if we disregard ourselves, we cannot help others. When we are not happy with ourselves, we cannot afford to care about others. That's why we need to love ourselves first to help others. Also, the reason I think this teaching could be an initial step for making a better world is because loving ourselves and helping others are something everyone can do if we try. It could be a very small thing like offering seats to elderly. I am sure some people would say this will not bring a fundamental change in the world, but if we cannot take a very small step, it is not possible to do something bigger. I believe that number of small actions definitely lead to bigger change.
I agree with your first move in being kind to one another. I think one thing that we should all realize is that we have no idea how our actions will affect us in the future. People who you are kind to now may help you much later in the future; you may not eve immediately realize it until you remember what you first did. I think the next step would be having various people banding together to naturally create various organizations that can help with a specific cause. The group can be very small as long as they are making some change in society. I'm thinking about movements like BlackLivesMatter that started because of one Facebook post. In this time, the smallest decisions can create a movement
ReplyDeleteI think your idea of many small acts of kindness to make a large impact is an excellent idea. Being Christian myself, I agree that a great first step to making the world a better place is to "love your neighbor as thyself". Some advice that I can offer towards implementing your plan would be to establish more concrete steps and to create opportunities that will bring people together. Christian high schools, like the one you attended, can start programs that offer outreach and community service opportunities. They can organize fundraisers to help other around the world and to spread love. Through the fundraisers, they can spread awareness about such issues to other people outside their school.
ReplyDeleteStarting small is definitely the way to start change in the world. Making a change in your own community is the first step to going global. I really liked when you explained that you must love yourself before you can learn to fully love others. I think part of caring for ourselves starts with caring for our own home. For example, recycling, energy, and water conservation are three small things people can do in their own homes to improve their lives, the lives of others, and the environment. Community service programs like homeless shelters and beach cleanups are great ways to start helping others in your community on a small scale, too.
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