lament

[katster]

when i was little, i wanted to change the world.

...what happened?

Comments

[murphymom.livejournal.com]

Life...eventually we come to realize that, for most of us, changing the world is not reachable - we can only affect that little corner we inhabit. hugs offered

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Pat came up with the only answer that I think I'll ever need.

I realized that, speaking against the people I'm speaking against, given their strong loyalty to staying on message, I couldn't possibly break through.

I can't do it.

And she pointed out the obvious: I can't do it *alone*. No one can.

But together, we can be much more than the sum of our parts.

My advice

[archangelbeth]

From my own biased point of view...

My sire wanted to change the world, he once told me. And to get to that end, he was a Balseraph, with a heck of a lot of bad habits, who was always trying to short-cut to a million dollars (and forget just a hundred thousand in the bank), or reaching lots of people, and not just a few at a time. And he was never happy, because he'd set himself that goal and invested so much of his self-esteem in it that he had to be a Balseraph about all the stuff he was screwing up.

Changing the world eats people, and even if you're in a huge organization, it's still going to be one step at a time. It's like the parable of the starfish. You make a difference to that one.

Find what you can do, or help with, without sacrificing everything in your life. Not everyone is Don Quixote to be satisfied with the questing whether or not it ever goes anywhere (and remember that the Don was a fruitcake). When you find what you can do, help those starfish, so that they can grow up and help other starfish in the future.

*scritchies*

Re: My advice

[tropism.livejournal.com]

Changing the world eats people, and even if you're in a huge organization, it's still going to be one step at a time. It's like the parable of the starfish. You make a difference to that one.

Feh. People talk about changing the world, and have no concept of what changing the world means. Changing the world doesn't mean personally producing Peace In The Mideast, or Solving The World's Energy Problems, or any such thing.

You change the world every day, through every action, through merely existing. When someone is depressed that they aren't "changing the world," a correction of scope is required, not the concept that it's impossible for the average person to change the world. Every person can change the world, implicitely, because they are part of the world. Changing yourself changes the world. Me writing this and having you read it changes you, and thus the world. Yes, the man changed the starfish, but he changed the world, too. Everything we do, choose, or choose not to do sends ripples of repercussions out throughout the world.

Kat: You can change the world. You do change the world. You changed me, by getting me to write this, and thus changed the world. ;) You just need to set yourself some goals! Start with something that's fairly well out of reach and set up intermediary goals, checkpoints. Then do it. You certainly have the potential to do quite a lot to the world; you just need to realise that and realize your potential. :)

[ladycalliope.livejournal.com]

You've gotten some good advice from the previous commenters. I would like to add this: You're not too old to change the world.

[true-crime.livejournal.com]

the world changes us instead. It's really not fair, but you've still got time to change it too.

[prophet-marcus.livejournal.com]

It is written:
"It is better to light a single candle than to set the world on fire."
Make your own life better. Change one other person's life, even in a little way, for the better. Each life is a world. Change one world. The Buddha couldn't change six billion worlds in one lifetime.

What happened. :)

[magister.livejournal.com]

This will sound horribly cliche, and I apologize, but I tell myself this:

The dark feelings come from the belief that our lives are not heading in the best possible direction. This is not true. The environment makes us believe this, and that is why people must be compelled to tell others that every tiny moment, even the ones we don't remember, causes us to believe and do the best possible thing until we reach that ultimate environment where we can think and breathe. We can only be happy along the journey (and at our destinations) if we remember that nothing ever puts us in the wrong direction.

I have no idea if that made sense. Let me know so I can be clearer.