Do Something Nice for Someone Else

Inspired by Z's three questions, I decided today that this weekend I will do something nice for one of my students. She is working so hard and trying to overcome so many things --- I can see that hunger in her to do well in school so she can get a good job and make a home for her daughters. It's the least I can do.

I took that idea to my afternoon class on Critical Thinking, and asked my students what is something that they've done this week that was nice for someone else. A couple people raised their hands and talked about feeding the homeless through church or spending time with an elderly man whose family doesn't visit.

We then proceeded to finish Al Gore's AMAZING documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." GO SEE IT. Better yet, buy a copy of it and then donate it to a local library or college library. Or share it with everyone you know. We are facing a global crisis with our environment, one that affects our ability as HUMANS to be able to continue to live on planet Earth. As a HUMANITIES teacher, I can't help myself from sharing these types of things.

Where global warming intersects with doing something nice for someone else is here: Gore says that global warming is not a political issue, but a moral issue. And, each one of us has contributed to the problem over the last thirty years, so it's up to us (and WELL within our abilities) to fix it. So, homework this weekend is to do something nice for someone else. That can be either by cleaning out a closet and donating the clothes and other items to a good cause. It can be by carpooling, or starting a carpool. It can be by going out and replacing the lightbulbs in one's house with energy-efficient lighting. All of these things benefit others in some way.

Sometimes we are overwhelmed by the magnitude of things, whether it is the vastness of human need or the total size of the earth or the depth and breadth of problems like global warming. It seems huge. But the best and only way to fix it is both the easiest and the hardest thing to do. We need to spread the word, and to lead by example. Changing our own habits is the hardest thing. So I thought I'd frame it as "Do Something Nice for Someone Else." I'll go out and buy a pair of tennis shoes for a hardworking mother and student, for example. No, that won't affect the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, but it is one small thing I can do that will make a big difference for one person.

Idealistic or not, I do believe that these things add up. After all, each tiny contribution of CO2, day after day, person by person, has put the ENTIRE EARTH in a climatic crisis. Now, I'm no expert at math, but I do remember that equations are commutative, meaning they work both ways. If we can each contribute our own tiny bit to a crisis, we MUST be able to make it work the other way.

I look forward to hearing and sharing what they did.