I've been thinking lately how one person's actions can affect so much. One person's words can inspire someone to do a good deed, which in turn affects someone else to act differently, who then cheers up another. Conversely, one person's misdeed could inflict a lifetime of pain for someone else, which leads that person to commit a crime, perhaps. Thus, the life of yet another is affected. Although we have all the agency in the world, we cannot choose our consequences. Realizing the powerful chain of influence, I concluded my life is not really mine.
I think it is really important to think about this when making decisions. This is particularly true for politicians and those who have very influential roles. However, contemplating consequences is equally important in the politics of our personal lives, our homes and families where our decisions have an impact great or small, positive or negative on those most close to us.
Take Du Du for instance: In the post-earthquake chaos that is still fatiguing Haiti, Du Du voluntarily spends his days creating order where no one else bothers to intervene. Driving conditions in countries like Haiti were bad enough, but now "in Port-au-Prince after the earthquake, driving is a 10th ring of hell. Picture roads overrun with tents, rubble, pedestrians and peddlers; tap-tap taxis stopping suddenly, dump trucks coughing black exhaust, few stoplights, 99-degree heat, no air-conditioning, dust, beggars and angry drivers blaring horns," (from this NYT article). Among all this stands Du Du with a whistle and purple plastic wand, directing the traffic like a symphony orchestra and helping pedestrians and drivers journey safely.
No one hired him, and he refuses to work for a government that does so little for its people. He has a passion for order that he has unleashed to bless the lives of others. Unlike the looters and robbers who proliferate after disasters in desperation to satisfy themselves, Du Du understands his life is not only his.
We can make a difference.
Faith
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