If you have a moment to spare please stop by and read this.
A slew of viral challenges have been circulating the web for a while now, but the #ALSicebucketchallenge has really upped the ante. It has gotten pretty big with all sorts of celebrities joining the effort. And unlike many critics I am not going to rant about how for many people this challenge has been just a nonsensical fad that involves the waste of natural resources instead of a serious endeavor to raise awareness and funds for a good cause. While there have been several concerns detracting from the overall experience, this campaign has already done a good job on multiple levels. After all, although I may not be an expert on medieval weaponry, I think in the real world every sword has two edges.
But there's something about all this that I would really like to focus on. The thing is the ALS challenge has gone way beyond its initial idea and kick-started a whole lot of of other campaigns that target a number of important issues. For instance, I really appreciate how an actor Orlando Jones dumped a bucket of bullet casings on himself in an attempt to 'reverse the hate'. There have been a number of other interesting modifications of the ice bucket challenge, and it also helped begin discussions about many problems that occupy our minds these days. Be it Ferguson or police brutality in general, or military conflicts that emerge in all parts of the globe, racial, political, medical or religious issues, it seems like it has never been too hard to see how the very fabric of our society frays here and there.
So all of this made me ponder various things and I have decided to go even further with this challenge. What we really need to strive to attain is something that's so much bigger than any of these problems on its own. And in fact, the only person any of us can nominate for such a challenge is themselves. More than that, it should not even be a challenge. A challenge involves competition and it seems to be quite ridiculous to compete with oneself. A challenge also means that there's a graded scale against which we measure how one thing or person is better than another thing or person. But if our ultimate goal is a certain lofty ideal, perfection, then there's simply no room for challenge. But there's always room for inspiration. Inspiration is the driving force behind any positive change.
So here's what I want to do, I 'challenge' myself to be a better person, to take a step towards perfection every day, to be kind, to love and understand, to study and learn so that one day I can contribute to making this world a better place, the one where we don't need to challenge other people or raise awareness about certain problems because they simply no longer exist. That's the kind of world most of us want to live in. And while this may sound utopian, it is sure worth it to give it a try. And by doing that I want to INSPIRE other people to think about this and maybe 'challenge' themselves to do similar things, to be someone they want and need to be.
P.S. I would also like to say thank you to my friends RW, SW and LE who nominated me for their thanksgiving challenges. I never took up these challenges the way I was called on to. But it doesn't take seven days or Facebook to say what I'm grateful for. Being who I am and where I am, having what I have and having the people who are by my side around me is the greatest blessing. But I also want to say that I'm grateful for having a choice, a great opportunity to try and achieve, to set the right goals and attain them and to work my way towards becoming the kind of person I want to meet and see more of around myself. So this is pretty much all I wanted to say, and I hope it will inspire somebody to make a positive change in themselves and in the world we live in.
No comments:
Post a Comment