How Can I Change the World?

Last Monday, we celebrated the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. That man knew a thing or two about answering today's question:

How Can I Change the World?

You may not one day have a national holiday in your honor, but I believe firmly in your ability to change the world, and your question indicates you just might believe the same thing. But you're not sure. You don't know how to go about this world-changing thing. You want a rubric, an instruction manual, a guidebook on changing the world.

And - of course - you already know what I'm going to say:

TOUGH.

There isn't one. There is no clear and uniform path to changing the world just as there is no clear and uniform path to becoming who you are meant to be in this world. In fact, those two things are related. Your world-changing must come from who you are. You can't expect to change anything unless you first find something you think is worth changing. And you have to recognize that the only way to change the world is to see yourself as part of the world and start the changing there.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spent a lot of his life talking about and fighting for and believing in Justice. His most famous "I Have a Dream" speech makes lots of references to justice - "the bank of justice," "the bright day of justice," "the palace of justice," "justice [rolling] down like waters." But to get to the point of talking about justice, you have to first recognize the injustice. You know the difference between the whining "that's not fair" you've been doing about having to walk to class in the cold (gasp!) and that pit of the stomach punch that hits you when you see or hear or encounter something that is truly unfair. Those moments don't all have to be as big as racial discrimination (although they certainly still can be); they could be - yes, really - about how unfair it feels to pay for parking and never be able to find a parking spot. To be required to spend hundreds of dollars on texts your professor never uses. To have to pay an athletic fee even though you have no intention of ever attending an athletic event at UTC. These are relatively small injustices, but they are unjust all the same, and your steps to changing the world start with you identifying what really bothers you and making a real effort to change those things. Change your world and you will change the world. It's as simple as that.

And if you want my signature for a petition fighting back against any of the injustices, you feel free to ask. In the comments below or via email, let me know what you find unjust and how you plan to fix it. I will be your biggest cheerleader.

Cheers,

Dr. Y

Will I change the world?

Will I change the world?

You can if you want to.  Do you want to?

We've all grown up hearing stories of heroes and heroines who take on difficult tasks and become
victors.  Harriet Tubman who fled slavery then returned to captivity 19 times to help free hundreds of slaves; Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. who dared to challenge the status quo of the racially and economically segregated U.S., and Tank Man in the famous Tiananmen Square image who literally stood before an army of tanks to try to change the world.

And then there are other real life heroes who see a problem before them--a mountain for instance--and literally decide to dig their way through the problem.  Such as Dashrath Manjhi who spent the better part of 22 years digging a shortcut through a mountain so that the people of his village could access medical care, markets, and neighboring villagers in the closest village a bit easier; Manjhi was prompted to carve out a 360foot long, 30 foot wide road after his wife died because she could not reach a neighboring village to access proper medical care.  The original route around the mountain was dangerous and lengthy.

And then there's Ramchandra Das, who was inspired by Manjhi's actions and spent 14 years of his own life digging through a mountain so his fellow villagers could access neighboring fields and so he could park his truck outside his home; the mountain near his home had prevented both things.  Das carved out a 32 foot long, 13 feet wide tunnel through the mountain.

These men dug through mountains to create something as simple as roads because they saw a need for those things for themselves and others.  Yes, you most certainly can change the world if you set your mind to do so and seek the means to make it happen.  

So, how are you going to change the world?  What are you going to do to make this world a bit better for yourself and the rest of us?

Go out and change the world and leave your last mark.  But begin by knowing this: yes, you can change the world if you so desire.

For some real life inspiration, check out this footage of Tank Man staring down those tanks:

Or

Prof. Chatterbox