It Takes a Village to Raise a Nation
In a world of war, strife, and global challenges, the old African proverb that it takes a village to raise a child is worth remembering.
This same wisdom can be applied to our entire nation, and indeed the entire world, if we allow it.
It can lead to remarkable things happening very quickly.
The whole idea of networking, social communities, and cooperative living is that alone we achieve much less than what we achieve together.
Together we achieve a type of synergy that cannot come from working by ourselves only, so it's worth our time to think about what part we play in this village we call our culture.
In Malcolm Gladwell's best selling book "The Tipping Point", he talks about social changes in terms of how they evolve, spread and ultimately explode in acceptance.
Described to behave much like an epidemic, one of the things he explores is that ideas can be contagious in exactly the same way that a virus is.
We've all seen this happen with laughter or a bad mood, haven't we? Maybe you get the giggles and you can't stop and soon everyone else is laughing too.
Or, perhaps you are in a sour mood and you readily pass that along, sometimes without even realizing you have - so, too, with social change ideas.
If you think back, it wasn't so long ago in the United States that much of the population smoked cigarettes.
It was glamorized in Hollywood movies, it was part of daily life, and a "non-smoking" section would have been considered crazy.
Now, it's almost exactly the opposite.
We see the same evolution with voting rights for minorities or the idea of not drinking and driving.
Things changed.
They reached a tipping point that allowed them to manifest into our culture.
They became embedded and accepted.
By recognizing that your one voice adds to the village of other voices advocating for social justice and reform, you can become an active citizen in causing a tipping point for a better world.
No one's voice is too small or too weak.
It all adds up to a synergistic explosion of health, abundance, and peace of mind for all of us.
Even in the darkest hours before the tipping point, the work is still being done.
How can you make your voice count the most? Use it! Blog about your views, talk to your friends and family, stand up for what you believe in, show up in solidarity to charity and awareness events, and take heart that what you do matters.
It all makes a difference.
You make a difference.
This same wisdom can be applied to our entire nation, and indeed the entire world, if we allow it.
It can lead to remarkable things happening very quickly.
The whole idea of networking, social communities, and cooperative living is that alone we achieve much less than what we achieve together.
Together we achieve a type of synergy that cannot come from working by ourselves only, so it's worth our time to think about what part we play in this village we call our culture.
In Malcolm Gladwell's best selling book "The Tipping Point", he talks about social changes in terms of how they evolve, spread and ultimately explode in acceptance.
Described to behave much like an epidemic, one of the things he explores is that ideas can be contagious in exactly the same way that a virus is.
We've all seen this happen with laughter or a bad mood, haven't we? Maybe you get the giggles and you can't stop and soon everyone else is laughing too.
Or, perhaps you are in a sour mood and you readily pass that along, sometimes without even realizing you have - so, too, with social change ideas.
If you think back, it wasn't so long ago in the United States that much of the population smoked cigarettes.
It was glamorized in Hollywood movies, it was part of daily life, and a "non-smoking" section would have been considered crazy.
Now, it's almost exactly the opposite.
We see the same evolution with voting rights for minorities or the idea of not drinking and driving.
Things changed.
They reached a tipping point that allowed them to manifest into our culture.
They became embedded and accepted.
By recognizing that your one voice adds to the village of other voices advocating for social justice and reform, you can become an active citizen in causing a tipping point for a better world.
No one's voice is too small or too weak.
It all adds up to a synergistic explosion of health, abundance, and peace of mind for all of us.
Even in the darkest hours before the tipping point, the work is still being done.
How can you make your voice count the most? Use it! Blog about your views, talk to your friends and family, stand up for what you believe in, show up in solidarity to charity and awareness events, and take heart that what you do matters.
It all makes a difference.
You make a difference.
