change isn't enough

All this politicking around needing "change" is making me wonder if our politicians, and the rally rousers around this idea, have their heads in the clouds. Wake up! Isn't it obvious that change is already happening everywhere, all the time, and more so today than generations ago? In fact, it's been happening exponentially -- to the point where I'm surprised we haven't increased the level of earth's entropy to the point of spontaneous combustion. (Perhaps that's where global climate change is leading after all.)

Don't we eat, travel, move, communicate, network, change jobs, reproduce, consume, waste, destroy, and rebuild more -- and to greater extremes -- than any civilization has before? We encounter and interact with the world around us more than ever before. We have more knowledge about the world and how technology can change things even more. Yet the one thing that hasn't increased and grown with all this change -- the one thing we don't seem to have any greater understanding of -- is compassion.

Where is the compassion? "Where is the love?" as Black Eyed Peas sings it. Where is the respect and understanding and true sense of value for human life?

It's a funny feeling for me to walk down the street and see all of these people and realize that complete strangers living in the same neighborhood (or building, even) co-exist in complete ignorance of each other. How did we end up in a society where the unspoken rule is "I leave you alone and you leave me alone" and go about our own business without a second thought to how we can do something for someone, however small, that will make their world a better place?

My wish for every person is to have the courage to do this: understand that the small gestures do matter and are within reach. Acknowledge the people around you. Affirm them. Make eye contact with the stranger in the elevator and smile. Even make small talk if you feel like it (and they are receptive). Say hello. Say thank you. Whatever it is you do, do it with compassion, respect, and unconditional love.

And that, my friends, is all the "change" we need -- because it's the only thing that is always within each person's reach.