I want to feel that I have changed the world at least to some small degree. So the above question at least occasionally enters my mind. This query is somewhat related to the previous post about being childless. If I were fortunate enough to have had children I could at least hold out hope that they might change the world because I gave them life. I could think that maybe my kids or grandkids will be the ones who: 1) solve global warming, 2) cure cancer, 3) bring peace to the Middle East, or 4)something maybe less dramatic but equally important. So maybe my life would mean something through my heirs. Without children even that possibility is shot down!

Most of us realize that we will never have an earth shattering effect on the world but we all hope that at least in some small way we have made a difference. This brings to mind the post I did a few weeks about around the Gandhi quote as shown below.

Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.

The meaning of this quote is that even if I have not accomplished an earth shaking thing in my life maybe I still made a difference. What I do may be insignificant but when it is taken into account with millions of other people’s similar actions it becomes very significant indeed! Although I have not made a big dent on the world I can point to many seemingly smaller things I have done that might have made a difference.

When I do things like helping those who are facing troubles in their lives I may never realize what that action really accomplished further down the road. I think that many of us have made unrealized differences in the world and just don’t know it.

And the journey goes on….