“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” -Robert F. Kennedy
Taken from RFK’s, “Day of Affirmation” address at the University of Capetown, South Africa on 6 June 6, 1966, reading this always reminds me that their really is power in one. Just think of all those who have walked the path of action, and what they have managed to accomplish as an individual; Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Susan B. Anthony, the Dalai Lama, Aung San Su Kyi, Martin Luther King Jr., and countless others. People are as powerful as they want to be, and if you stand with courage, do the right thing in a time of difficulty, and don’t give into the masses, you too can make a difference. I have said it countless times before that we can make a difference, even if a small one, and I can sleep well tonight if only one person reads this and is incited to act in some way at all.
One never knows the power of a smile to change a mans life, the enormity of a kind word to shape the future of a child, the everlasting effect of an act of thoughtfulness. One does not always see the effects of his actions, but they can have an endless effect. Imagine if you see someone on the bus and you strike up the most simplistic of conversation, complementing them in some way, you leave thinking nothing of it, but that person had only been thinking their life was worthless until you stepped into their life…you have now changed their fate. I found the following poem, which I though was quite fitting;
Making A Difference
by: Unknown
If each grain of sand were to say:
One grain does not make a mountain,
There would be no land.
If each drop of water were to say:
One drop does not make an ocean,
There would be no sea.
If each note of music were to say:
Each note does not make a symphony,
There would be no melody.
If each word were to say:
One word does not make a library,
There would be no book.
If each brick were to say:
One brick does not make a wall,
There would be no house.
If each seed were to say:
One seed does not make a field,
There would be no harvest.
If each of us were to say:
One person does not make the difference,
There would never be love and peace on earth.
You and I do make the difference,
Begin today and make the difference.