change the world, twenty minutes at a time

I am changing this goal for myself. I marked it done, cause I’m not giving up. Just changing the goal…

“I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.”
- Aldous Huxley

This turned up on another page where I was getting some cocktails poured. So I brought it over where it belongs.

Plus an anecdote:

My boss’s boss has historically been a burr in my socks. He is given to saying inappropriate and antagonistic things – the sorts of things that if someone in a lesser position uttered them would be cause for reprimand.

Over the months, I have made efforts of at least a desultory nature to encourage a friendlier atmosphere, randomly offering smiles and sunny thoughts. About a week ago, I approached him about starting Aloha Fridays in the office. In addition to the proliferation of aloha shirts sure to make an appearance, we would have a “bar” set up in an open air atrium, serving healthy snacks and drinks – no charge.

Yesterday, he came over to my desk, gave me two or three complements on my work, and then said he not only wants this tiki bar to happen, but he wants it to be a regular thing, and he’ll help support it financially.

I’ve been vacillating about who I would vote for in the primary. My inclination was Kucinich, because he seemed to articulate what I felt. Obama then swayed me with his charisma. But I liked Edwards a lot. I liked his roll up the sleeves and just get it done attitude. And when he spoke, I believed he meant what he said. Clinton began to emerge from the rhetoric of the race. She was making sense, and seemed to have a sense of the depth and breadth of the issues. Not just the biggies, but the deeper darker danker troubles that are sneaking up on us, especially economically.

And then tonight I read everyone’s pages on the net, and dang it! Edwards is the only one who gets directly to the point, and has serious straightforward plans to take care of our problems that have grown like weeds after the rain lately.

So I invite everyone who reads this to go into the candidate’s web sites and see for yourself, and decide who speaks to the issues as you understand them, and then support that person.

“Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door & just visit now and then.”
- Katharine Hepburn

So I wanted to share. A dose of laughter perhaps, and a dose of reality perhaps. Not always, not for everyone, but now and then, yeah.

What a wonderfully challenging goal. One thing I like about it is being able to come here and be inspired.

Tonight, here is http://www.heifer.org

Where you can help a person, help a village, and help roll the ball uphill for those whose life is vastly improved by your hand reaching out to them.