Greg Mortenson...inspirational

Last night, my husband and I met up for dinner after seeing Greg Mortenson speak. I told him a little bit about his background and the amazing accomplishments he has made. It got us talking about what Mr. Mortenson closed his speech with... What mark are we making on the world?

My husband is a public defender and while he was in law school is was very active with the crisis ministry on meeting street. To my knowledge, the law school requires everyone to do a certain number of hours in the field doing work such as this. I am in graduate school helping to teach students in public school, many of which live in poverty. Both our careers are service jobs helping those in need. Before teaching, I worked at an Advertising Agency who one day a year had who ever wanted to go out to a site and help build a house for someone in need through United Way. I jumped at the chance to get out of the office and to do some manuel labor.

Despite this, I feel we need to do something, not because its our job or an excuse to get out of the office, but because we feel very passionately about a cause, such as education. We started talking about some ideas and are really going to try and volunteer in our community. With the mid-term elections just finishing up, it makes me think about all the people, myself included, who "bitch" about the economy, education, health care, etc, but who really are not out in the community physically trying to do something about it. We might start small, helping out at a soup kitchen around the holidays or adopt a family to give Christmas gifts too. My hope is that the satisfaction we get out of helping others will drive us to want to do more.