Changing the World...

photo from: stopabusecampaign.com

Early yesterday morning on my way into town, I popped Disc 3 from CSN a Box Set into the CD player. As my car descended Waterman Hill much more slowly than usual since I was behind a SLC construction vehicle pulling a wood chipper, the song Chicago started playing, and I sang along with the chorus:

We can change the world
Re-arrange the world
It's dying ... if you believe in justice
It's dying ... and if you believe in freedom
It's dying ... let a man live his own life
It's dying ... rules and regulations, who needs them
Open up the door

OK, those of you who really know me, are probably saying, but she probably didn't know all the lyrics and she sang really loudly and off key, while beating on the steering wheel. Which is all true, actually! Beyond all that, the words started resonating, and I realized that a song by Graham Nash, written in 1968 and recorded in 1971, is still current; it still has meaning and relevance. How is it that everything those folks were fighting for back when I was 4 years old is still on the agenda. I mean come on, 46 years later and we are in the same place. Really, read or even sing the words again!

Changing the world: is it something we all dream of? “Be the change you want to see,” is a motto I have heard bandied around in recent years. What if we all stopped what we were doing and followed our passion or became passionate about what we are doing? What if our life's work became making this a better place for every living being? What if we woke up every morning and said, “what can I do to help someone else today?” What if we all stopped judging and started treating one another as equals with kindness and empathy? What if the acquisition of knowledge trumped the acquisition of stuff? Can we empower people to become the change they want to see? What would that look like?

I may be crazy, but I believe that revolutionizing our educational models to encourage kids to follow their hearts and interests and to become thoughtful citizens of the world will allow them to take their place in all this and lead us there.

Call it idealistic, unrealistic, revolutionary, or transformational. Call it anything you like, as long as my future (really far in the future) grand-kids don't come to me and say, “Hey Gram, we were listening to that really old CSN song about changing the world. Whatever happened to that?”

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