All it Takes is One Person..and Another... and Another

I'm still coming down off a giddy high from an event I attended a couple of nights ago. You would have thought it was a rock concert the way everyone was lined up outside the door of the armory building.  The 

tattooed and purple-haired mingled easily with the gray-haired reading glasses crowd. Inside it looked like a huge science fair. Only instead of words and pictures that explained black holes and quarks, these posters called on us to  "Feed My Hungry Children," "Educate the Women of the World"  or "Break the Cycle of Poverty." 

Nearly 70 groups manned tables to tell how they made lemonade with the lemons life gave them. Maasi Dancers from East Africa, dressed in traditional warrior garb, taught us how to dance; and they told us how it feels to live without food for days at a time, to be forced to marry at 13, and to walk 13 kilometers a day to get milk for the children. 

Everyone was interested. Everyone seemed to want to get involved. It was so crowded that it was nearly impossible to get close to some of the tables just to sign up for e-mails at the Global Activism Expo.

I did get to talk privately for a few minutes with Margaret Fleming, who learned a lot about HIV when her only sibling was diagnosed with it. When she realized how many countries ostracized children with HIV she began to adopt them. She adopted one child with HIV and founded Adoption-link with one volunteer to help her find homes for others. 16 years later she still finds homes for children from all over the world. Her own home is too full to take anymore. Margaret's 3 biological children are grown and gone, but her adopted children keep it lively.  There are 9 at home. The oldest is 26 and the youngest is 3. By the way, Margaret herself is 72 years old!  

"Remember that there is a meaning beyond absurdity. Be sure that every little deed counts, that every word has power. Never forget that you can still do your share to redeem the world in spite of all absurdities and frustrations and disappointments."

 

"All it takes is one person… and another… and another… and another… to start a movement"  

Rabbi Abraham Heschel