Saving the World!

While we were driving to the mountains, Sissysnuggiekins spoke about the injustices of the world (yes, she's 15, but going on 35). Specifically, how the most demeaning and strenuous jobs are the lowest paid, and how people who are making big money are doing the least amount of work.

Before FD and I could totally attack her with our oh-so-wise, "That's just how things are," she said matter of factly, "I want to change that."

It was such a nostalgic moment because I remember feeling the same way.

When I was 17, I told someone that I wanted to join the Peace Corps and help save the world. They laughed and said, "We all think we can save the world at your age, but one day you'll realize the world can't be saved."

So I didn't join the Peace Corps. And instead of delivering food to impoverished nations, I got my useless English and Theatre degree and went on to work useless jobs, at coffee shops and grocery stores. I was so intent on getting my own life started, on staying the course, from high school to college, that I decided not to save the world. And I truly regret it. Instead of changing lives, I changed coffee filters and receipts, and eventually diapers.

If anyone is reading this who thinks they can change the way of things, the politics, the status quo, I say, "GO FOR IT!" See the world, change what you view as unjust. Go Sissysnuggiekins! Don't let anyone tell you that it's futile.

I feel the same way about the cure for Cystic Fibrosis. I understand more than anyone the disappointment if it isn't possible, if we hope and are mistaken. But hope is always a good thing, even when you're wrong.

There's a wonderful poem by Stephen Crane that illustrates my point:


I Saw a Man

I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped.

I was disturbed at this; I accosted the man.
"It is futile," I said,
"You can never -- "

"You lie," he cried,
And ran on.

Stephen Crane