Planting Seeds

I think the issues that both of the readings for this week (Nexus and The Tipping Point) stress important points about individuals' roles in the world. I appreciated that the authors were not solely acknowledging the "important" people, the connectors as Gladwell says, but also every little step in between. Every little step matters, and each of our actions matter-- they are just leading up to a tipping point, maybe... It is hard not to be pessimistic, since so many books are published and fail to even sell 100 copies let alone a million (I'm thinking of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood example) and so many clothing companies come out without being successful, and so many organizations and groups are established with certain goals that seem to never bee accomplished. It seems that the law of the few also applies to the scarcity of success. There is a minute chance that I will be President. There is a minute chance that I will star in a major motion picture. And I feel the same about the probability of these two possibilities as I do about the possibility that we can save the planet. There may be small chance, but as we read in "Don't Think of an Elephant", the frameworks being used are failing. The more we move into the future, the less likely it seems that we can change it. But I've found it helpful, reading the books for this week, to focus on the small stuff. I think your interactions and conversations and actions in your daily life are the most important. They may affect one person, two people, or no people. But that is what defines us. And we cannot all expect to shift paradigms every day. But I do have hope for the future, at least mine and those around me. If we all try to live our best and make changes for the best, that's all we can really do.