Poll time

[kellinator]

My mom and I were having this argument last night...

[Poll #114931]


My mom says I'm only one person and I can't change anything, and I have to stop being so passionate or I'll drive myself crazy.

I say if I stop being passionate, I'll lose the best part of me. And I'm already crazy, so it doesn't matter.

Comments

[tikimama.livejournal.com]

Of course one person can make a difference--Bush, Hitler, Stalin, Hussein, Rosa Parks, Madonna. It's ridiculous to say otherwise. However, one doesn't always know if one is "making a difference" until long after whatever that point was.

Re:

[kellinator.livejournal.com]

It seems from that list that it's a lot easier to make a difference for the bad than the good...

[tikimama.livejournal.com]

I suppose, but who can can say what is really, in the end, for the 'good' or 'bad'? The repercussions of our actions echo for so long after the actee is gone--the current situation in the middle east, the result of thousands of years of tensions and religions and economics. Is there one person to blame for it all? No, not really. So it follows that there can be no "one" person to change it all.

In any case, I could have made a list of 'good' people, though I think Madonna is sort of chaotic neutral. Bush et all are on my mind this morning, is all. I could have written Carrie Nation, or Gandhi, or Siddhartha, or Jesus. (religious figures represented in their non-supernatural forms, both since I'm an atheist and to keep things level).

The thing I think is important to remember is, you never know. I mean, Rosa Parks had sat in the back of the bus every day for her entire life. That one day, she didn't feel like it, she didn't, and it set off a whole reaction. Maybe if she's waited until two days later, the same things wouldn't have happened. Maybe other people had already done it, but it hadn't received any press, maybe no one made a fuss.

I think the deal with being passionate and caring is that you just have to. You can't say, well, I'm only going to do this if it has lasting impact. You can't know. I mean, all those kids in the White Rose (a group of college students who protested the Nazis and were executed) didn't really stop the Nazis or bring much attention to the situation. Does that mean that they shouldn't have done it? I don't think so--they did what they thought was right, and showed amazing bravery (more than I would have, I'm sure). Doing the right thing doesn't always mean you'll be rewarded for it. That's not why you do it, you do it because it is the right thing to do, and you are responsible to yourself to live that way.