delta

I was thinking about that Gandhi quote as I biked to work yesterday. you've heard it, I'm sure. it's probably on a thousand bumper stickers and a thousand fridge magnets and a thousand little plaques on a thousand office desks all across the world. it goes like this:

"be the change you wish to see in the world."

and as I was thinking about that idea, the questions I kept looking back to were:

what change do I wish to see in the world? what does it look like?

I'm sure all of us have things we wish we could change about the way things are and the way things work. I wish there wasn't so much noise. I wish I didn't have to sleep so much. I wish it was a tiny bit easier to travel great distances and see faraway places.

but are those changes something I can embody? are those changes anything I can do anything about?

and more importantly, what would the consequences of those changes be?

I wonder what Gandhi hoped we'd do with those words. was he thinking we could each envision a perfect world and then live as if we were already a part of it? what kind of change did he imagine we could become? did he even have a specific sort in mind, or does he trust the masses of people who quote him to latch on to a type of change that will be for the better?

be the change.

he didn't say make the change. he didn't say initiate the change. this isn't just an action, or even a series of actions. this is who you are. it's everything.

I'm going to keep coming back to this.