Be the Change, Be Yourself

This guest post was contributed by George Cassidy Payne, the founder of Gandhi Earth Keepers International. He is also a writer, a domestic violence counselor, and an adjunct professor of philosophy. George lives and works in Rochester, NY. You can follow him on LinkedIn.

The world does not need more energy, cars, street lights, and computers. The world does not need more airports, superhighways, and mega cities. The world does not need more democracies and free markets. The world does not need more hospitals, medicines, and cures. The world does not need more agreements, treaties, and contracts. The world does not need more conversations, Facebook memes, and status updates. The world does not need more programs, grants, and scholarships. The world does not need more helpers and doers. The world does not need better high schools and colleges. The world does not need anything, not really.

The world has everything that it will ever need. The world only needs to be left alone. Less tweaking and less tinkering. The world wants to be forgotten so that it can be lived. The world wants to be lost so that it can be saved. The world wants to be accepted just as it is. When Gandhi said be the change you want to see in the world, he meant be yourself. Change with the tide. Wash away with the current. Go away with the breeze. Take a breath. Become the void. Hold onto the anchor that steadies. For the world is changing all of the time.

Be the change. In time, go with the world wherever it leads. Go with it. Do not try to stop it. Do not try to turn it back. Do not try to make it different. Rather change yourself. Turn as the leaves turn. Grow. Yearn for the sunlight. Stay rooted in the soil. Be one. Be the change. Be yourself. This is what Gandhi wanted us to understand. Elsewhere the Mahatma wrote: “As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world—that is the myth of the atomic—as in being able to remake ourselves.”

If anything at all, that is what the world needs. It needs people who are not afraid to remake themselves.