Do it to help solve problems, to make life better for other people. But also do it for you, because it will add to the joy and excitement of living a meaningful life.
There is a poet named Mary Oliver and she puts the challenge this way: “Tell me,” she asks, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
Not long ago I went back for a high school reunion in Tacoma. Nearly all my classmates were leading comfortable lives in business or the professions. They worried about the stock market and college tuitions for their kids. To be honest, I was bored.
Except for one man. His name was Tom. He’d been the slowest kid in class; we’d all made jokes about him. Well, Tom had for 30 years been directing a social service agency that ran programs for drug addicts in the worst area of Tacoma. It was tough, risky work.
Tom was fascinating. He spoke with the energy and peace of mind of a person who’d truly found his calling and was answering it with everything he had.
What will you see in yourself and your classmates when you come back here for your reunions? When you come back here, how will you have answered Mary Oliver’s question “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
For more on the Giraffe Heroes Project, go to www.giraffe.org. For more on John Graham’s speeches, go to www.johngrahamspeaker.org.
