how change happens

Last night I talked to Bill, and as happens there our discussion turned to politics and what is happening in and around Washington D.C. .... the fed and the changing interest rate, Alan Greenspan and Anne Rand's Fountainhead, and finally the candidates.

This discussion always leads to some grumbling... Hilary? Guliani? certainly not Barac...

And here is the thing, I don't really think any of them will be a huge move toward change. O'Bama certainly resonates more with me. I see him as a more hopeful choice... as a choice that leans into the future I hope to see for my children and grandchildren... but none of them has the capability to really make the shift.

I think we will change the world one person at a time. I think the world is changing right now. Last night I watched a piece on micro-credit on NOW. There is a once non-profit/now for profit bank that lends money to mainly poor women. It's interest rate is 100% (unbelievable amount to me). They claim that the rate of interest they charge is in line with the rest of Mexico... but Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize last year believes they are part of the old way of doing business. He believes, and I agree, that the purpose of micro-lending is to raise people out of poverty, not to create a profit.

I am reading the book Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming by Paul Hawken. In it Hawken speaks of a movement that no one can see. A movement made up of thousands of small cells working toward environmental and social justice equity. He sees huge change coming from the grassroots of society.

Last week I listened to a lecture by Richard Rohr. In the lecture he spoke of a movement. A movement toward a world belief system that was open, not closed. He said people will still be Catholics, Jews, Lutherans, and Muslims... but their view of who God is and how God works will be freed from the dogma of their individual religions. A more ecumenical way of worship, a more inclusive look at who and how God loves.

Also this week a copy of Teaching Tolerance was placed in my mail box at school. In it I found a small poster that now is taped to my classroom window. It says, if you do not like the world the way it is, you need to change.

Years ago I attended Tough Love meetings for a while. What I got from those was that I could not change anyone but myself. And in desperation, I did.

Two nights ago, while my friend was talking about the business venture she wants to create... the one she wants to include me in, I interrupted her and told her I thought my mission in life was to save the planet.

What self-inflating idea that is! But it really rings true to me. Hilary? Guliani? O'Bama? It is really not up to them at all. It is up to me.