Maybe it’s just me (I’m pretty cynical), but every time I encounter The Next Great Idea That’s Going to Change the World, my built-in, shock-proof bullshit detector starts screeching. I don’t care if it’s an advertisement for a new product or a blurb on the news or just Joe Blow blowin’. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t believe you. I’ve heard it too many times before: “renewable” energy; electric cars; digital currency; virtual reality… On and on.

I hope we finally do start to stumble onto and enact some large-scale solutions to real problems facing the world at large, but Lord knows we spend a lot more time making problems than we do fixing them. The fact remains that the people in this world with the most ability (read: most money) to make a difference are the same people who profit from the conditions as they are. They won’t make change; they make dollars. We must change.

The question is: Are we willing to change?

There’s a truly transcendent moment in Kurt Vonnegut’s The Sirens of Titan when Boaz warns Unk: “Don’t Truth me, Unk, and I won’t Truth you.”

That’s us in this world.  

Even now, I’m holding back, fearing if I say much more I will lose you, dear reader. So, I won’t in hopes I don’t. How about this: how about from now on when we’re confronted with difficult truths we stop taking things so personally and start thinking about the bigger picture. Let’s think of it as practicing Truthing ourselves instead of attack Truthing each other or being attacked. In fact, that’s the gist of what I’m about to suggest.

I’m not going to go so far as to say I’ve discovered The Next Great Idea That’s Going to Change the World. Actually, what I’ve discovered is nothing new at all. So, technically it’s no discovery; it’s more of a rediscovery or recovery. At any rate, each of us knows it to be true. It just isn’t hip. It isn’t lucrative. It isn’t posh. And it isn’t easy.

Making a difference in the world starts with making a difference in your own world. Change begins on the personal level. Once we begin to improve our own internal ecosystems, it’s almost like centripetal force: the positive change naturally makes its way outward into the external world. In times like these, you can feel it drawing you nearer to others in need, a sort of magnanimous mindfulness—or, dare I say, Karma making its rounds.

Having recovered from easily the darkest, most difficult era of my life, I want nothing more than to help others going through the wringer find the light. I encourage such persons to write about their darkness, to expose it, to exercise it—and thereby overcome it. But it isn’t that easy. Talking about it is one thing; living it… You know what I mean. You’ve been there. We all have. Every day marks another opportunity for adversity to rear its ugly, medusian head and turn our hearts to stone. But so, too, every day marks another opportunity to exercise presence and mindfulness.

I must keep reminding myself of this. I am going to be present and mindful. I am going to be compassionate and proactive. I am going to be thoughtful and hopeful. Etc.

I’m going to lend a hand instead of shaking a fist. I’m going to ask questions and really listen. I’m going to be honest and truthful. Above all, I’m going to do the right thing every time. I’m going to fail at this mission. Over and over, I will fail, but I’m going to fail less and less as time goes on. By making and maintaining this positive change in my own world, perhaps I can make a difference in other worlds as well. Hopefully even yours. Ours.