The hardest parts in life for me, have always been taking the first step in something. This blog, this post, more specifically, is no different than anything else I have ever started doing. However, I feel that on some level I must make not only this post, but more, I don't know how many, but I must write more. My only real hope is that at least one person reads this, and they might not be directly inspired by it, but they begin to think of the things I do, in a more broad sense than they ever have before.
Every day in the news, you can not only read about, but SEE others in this world that suffer. I could recite to you more numbers and statistics of people that suffer needlessly in this world than I could ever dream of really telling you about. Not only people, but animals, plants, and insects as well. Our Earth is in a downward spiral that I fear we may never see the end of, if we don't change not only the way we look at the world, but how we act towards it and it's inhabitants.
I have never told this to anybody before, but if you told me to answer truthfully the question of "What do you want to do when you get older and out of college?" I would simply reply, "I want to ease the suffering I see all around me." I don't pretend to believe I can do it alone, nor do I want to. The problems of this planet require all the help that people can give, and if I can inspire people to do that...well, it will give me hope that I can inspire more, and will continue trying.
What I see is not a world of full wars, pollution, crime, hate, suffering, anger, bigotry, racism, and unnecessary death, but a world that is full of people willing to fight against all those things, openly and aggressively! A world that unites itself in a singular cause made up of many smaller ones. A world where we can maintain our borders, but extend the feeling of unity past them. Past the borders of ourselves, our neighborhoods, states, and even countries. Where the place we grew up in is just that. Not a reason to kill another human, not a reason to create weapons, and certainly not a reason to hate somebody because the words on their birth certificate do not match the ones on yours. I don't want anyone ever to erase neighborhoods and countries from any map. I merely wish that the people in them, can extend their sense of togetherness past lines that only exist in our minds, on pieces of paper, but not in reality.
There's a very old expression "Two steps forward, one step back." I believe that as a human race, if we can extend our individual senses of togetherness past wherever we were born, or live, we will never have to take a step back again. As a species we can accomplish many great things, but for the problems we face today, it will take more than one neighborhood, one county, one state, or one nation, to solve them. For these problems, we need one world, and all the people in it. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamt, John Lennon imagined, and I not only believe, but I KNOW we can do this. If only we learn to take two steps forward, and zero steps back.
-Zan
