John Mayer

I cannot say how much I love John Mayer. Love him, love him! Sorry Jason. ;) I've gotten a bit behind reading his blogs, so this morning I played catch up. On April 26th, he wrote a post entitled "(Not) Waiting on the World to Change".

A year ago this month I wrote a song called "Waiting on the World to Change", in which I tried to express the feelings of helplessness that come with knowing what needs to change in the world but also knowing the futility of trying.

Since that song has been released, there has been one social issue I've kept particularly focused on, silently keeping notes in my mind about what needs to be fixed (and more constructively, how to go about fixing it) while hoping that someone else sharing my exact views would carry out the work without my ever getting involved.

Hey, I'm just being honest.

How many times have you thought that? I know I have. Pretty much all of my life, actually. You see the problems in the world that you know need fixing but yet you don't want to have to actually do anything about it. That's someone else's job, right? Well,....not really.

It is possible for us change the world. And no, it doesn't involve running for office or having our own talk show on television. Each of us make choices everyday. Little decisions, that over time, impact the quality of our life and the lives of those around us. We choose to recycle or not to recycle. To smile at the check-out girl who's having a slow day, or sigh and roll your eyes her way. To complain constantly to anyone who will listen about the state of your school system, or join a parent's group where your thoughts and ideas can actually be heard.

At the risk of sounding preachy (too late!), most of us do not realize the impact we have on others or the world in general. We know there are problems, but we don't want to admit that any of it is our fault or that we have any power to help solve it. On the topic of global warming(yes I do believe it exists!), John Mayer suggests going "light green".

No thinking about "offsetting your carbon footprint". No rallies. No brow-beating people who think the Earth just has a fever. Pick one thing to change this year, and keep the rest of your life the same.

It's like changing the world one baby step at a time(sounds corny, I know). Instead of being overwhelmed while looking at the problem as a whole, pick one thing and say "I'm going to do this". "This is my contribution to the world this year". Before you know it, you'll have yourself a habit. Maybe it's that you will never again throw in the garbage, a bottle that can be recycled. Or you buy reusable grocery bags and use them every time when you go buy groceries. Whatever it is, it's only ONE thing. How hard can that be?

And that's my thought for the day.