Be The Change You Wish To See In The World

As an adult and a parent, I find that I spend time reflecting on what I was taught, how I was taught, and lessons that I value.  When I took a Film Studies class in high school, I recall vividly the opening of the Western movie "The Wild Bunch" where kids are torturing a scorpion.  The idea that director Sam Peckinpah was conveying, or that I took away, is that all people have a primitive nature and we are taught how to be socially engaged and kind.  As in all areas, some people have predispositions to kindness or to cruelty.  Plus, parents and caregivers to have a huge impact on the direction of our social engagement preferences.

Which leads me to the idea that not everyone has the same values.  At school, my now second grade daughter is taught how to share and focus on the work before her.  She is encouraged to play well with others and be kind.  Sadly, these lessons do not always serve people.  In a large family, if a person would wait to take food, dinner might be gone.  Survival of the fittest becomes the lesson of the day.  Nevertheless, there is a time and place for everything, including kindness.

Sometimes, doing the right thing is hard.  Sometimes being kind and generous takes more energy than we wish to spend.  Sometimes people treat us badly and we are not full of what Ghandi called satyigraha, or resisting peacefully.  Right now I have many areas of my life that cause me anxiety; I'm not alone in this.

I often look to world leaders to inspire me and how I interact in the world.  Past leaders are who I'm turning to these days.  The phrase that comes to mind lately again and again is the one inspired by Ghandi, "Be the change you wish to see in the world."   I shall endeavor!

Dr. Heather Corwin, Copyright  © 2018