The Social NetWorker

Fully Integrated Social Change

(This is a guest post by Megan Elizabeth Morris.)

"I define 'fundamental change' as a society where every individual comes to accept every social problem as a problem of his own making, and sees the wisdom of changing himself (into a happier and compassionate human being) as his way of changing the world."

"In The Republic of Tea we embody Chuang Tzu’s 'time before history,' when people were kind to one another but did not call it 'being kind to one another,' when people naturally looked out for each other and for the world around them but didn’t see it as 'being caring and responsible.' Incidentally, the reason Chuang Tzu called this the 'time before history' is because it was an era that came and went without leaving a trace of itself. Since nothing went 'wrong,' nobody had any reason to write anything down. It was lived, not recorded."

Not terribly long ago, I read this beautiful book: The Republic of Tea. It was about life and serenity (and tea, and business). It was astonishing from the first few pages and just got better as it went. It felt like an incredible expression, for me, of work being life; we work because we are meant for something, not because someone told us we had to pull in a paycheck or because we needed some extra cash for the new dining room table. We work because there is something calling us to do good work.

I think we tend to lose sight of the reasons we live our lives the way we do. It often feels right to sleep and work and go home for the day because it's a pattern we see all around us, but there are other, better reasons that sometimes get forgotten -- that people need us, for instance. That we can help people who are struggling through difficulty. That we can make a difference in the world we live in.

An idea presented by this book (one of very, very many that resonated with me) is that there can be a fundamental decency in the way people behave, so fundamental that they don't recognize it as an element of their lives. A world where being a good guy is just what you do, without acknowledgment or praise or credit. Part of being human.

Perhaps our ultimate goal should not so much be changing the world into something that recognizes and applauds itself for making positive change, but into something that understands the basic, inherent value of good works and does them without thinking, celebrates them quietly, fully integrates them. What if that was our very first urge in all circumstances? Simply to do something good?

Sounds nice, doesn't it?

Megan Elizabeth Morris (email)
Ms. Morris writes at Personal Revelations of the Magnificent Megan M. Megan Elizabeth Morris, or The Magnificent Megan M., [proper noun]: Superhuman font of knowledge, skill, determination & resourcefulness. Exudes enzymes that cause others to surpass their potential. Master thinker; writes, designs, manages, ideastorms, markets, inspires, connects, grows, teaches, makes things happen, changes the world, and throws a mean right hook. (Okay. Not the last one. Well! Not literally.)