There is hope for humanity, after all...

About one week ago, my son and I left the supermarket with our cart full of groceries and put them in our car. My son and I walked to return our cart to the cart area, when we observed an older gentleman was reorganizing the carts into neater rows. I stood there, unsure if he was a supermarket employee, such as a manager because he was professionally dressed. He turned around and looked at me, and saying "It's alright. You may leave your cart here. I will get it."

I told him that is OK. Then, I asked him, "Do you work here?" He replied no. I then looked at him still confused. He told me that he wants to do something nice for people. "These messy carts may hurt people or damage cars," he told me. "Why do we always have to be careless or in a hurry? We should take the time and think of others." I looked at him, and I said, "True, imagine if we all did one thing from the goodness of our hearts? This would be a perfect world, wouldn't it?" He nodded and replied, "Yes, a perfect world."

The gentleman was finishing stacking the carts. He then looked at my son, and told him "Listen to your parents, young man." He then told us, "Have a good day." I replied, "You, too."

I was touched by this man's intentions and actions. I even got goose bumps! Not many people would take the time to do something for strangers and not get major publicity for doing it. I truly felt the world a place of goodness. I honestly felt good. I thought to myself, "There is hope for humanity, after all..."

Can an individual make a difference?

Today, a colleague of mine mentioned that she doesn't watch any serious movies at all, except "dumb comedies", you know movies that I call "stupid funny". I asked her why not. She told me there are too many problems in this world, and that "dumb comedies" are one way of forgetting the negatives of this world. Yeah, but is that being a responsible citizen? or is that that we as citizens no longer can make a difference? I am not sure.

All, I know is that if you take care of yourself, and you consciously make an effort to live for the "good", then shouldn't that make some sort of ripple effect of goodness? I mean if your yard looks clean and environment friendly, wouldn't your neighbors want to do the same thing with their yards? At least they tend to want to do the same.

Something, I realized...that an individual DOES make a difference, but sometimes it goes unacknowledged. How did I come to that conclusion? I had made a suggestion on a list serve that I get through email: to read Pedagogy of the Oppressed to understand oppression and conditioning's of oppression. One reader emailed me privately, and asked my opinion of Pedagogy of the Oppressed or Pedagogy of Hope, which one should she read?

I was kind of surprised. I thought my message would be lost in cyber space because you know how list serves work: you get many messages a day. I was wrong. So, I decided that I am going to take great care of my actions and thoughts because I may influence you or someone else.

Comments are welcomed.