Crazy

Okay, be warned. Here comes a sentimental post, and another of those "holy cow Jessica is a real rambler" moments. If you're not into philosophy or quotes or mild triteness, stop reading now.

Thanks Mom, I think you're probably still reading :)

This weekend was a restful departure from a hectic week. It's getting chillier here, so I spent the greater portion of today under the blankets reading magazines and Web sites that I've been neglecting. Since I don't have any overly exciting adventures to recount, here are a few highlights that I found to be really great reads:

The DIY Foreign Aid Revolution: Nicholas D. Kristof's look at women who are identifying micro-level issues and single-handedly attacking them. This is so inspiring, but also really intimidating. It really got to me, because I read about young women like this and so admire them, but to emulate them I wouldn't even know where to start. Kristof opens with, "Like so many highly trained young women these days, Elizabeth Scharpf has choices..." and Elizabeth goes on to start a non-profit that produces sanitary pads so girls in Mozambique can go to school without being embarrassed about menstruating.

Which ties into another article on choices I read in the British version of Glamour (hey, I didn't say all of this reading was high-brow). It discussed how the freedom women experience today is both a blessing and a curse. I'm sure if you went back and presented that thesis to suffragettes and pioneering feminists, they would be appalled, but it's interesting to note that so many young women are in this paradox. With so many options available to them, they are paralyzed.

Globalization, increased education and prosperity have combined to give my generation the option to do volunteer work, go to grad school, take a gap year, write a novel or open a hot dog stand if that's what we want to do. So without a societally-mandated life path to follow, where do we start? Though the two things aren't always mutually exclusive, there's often constant tension between doing the crazy thing that makes us really happy/makes a difference and following a safe career path that leads to a white picket fence and a padded 401k.

Which circles back to the women Kristof discusses in his article. They made huge personal sacrifices (which I am glad he addressed) to see their ideas really take shape, and a few of them have taken enormous risks that flopped. I suspect though, that if you asked each of them whether they have regrets, they wouldn't point to these risky ventures. Because how can you say you regret trying to change the world?

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Does anyone remember Apple's "Think Different" campaign? It was way back in 1997, but I can still picture the black and white posters of thought leaders on our middle school computer lab wall, along with the text:

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

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Considering that this post was serious thought vomit, I'm sure you're probably thinking I'm a bit crazy too. But not in the Jane Goodall/Pablo Picasso/Albert Einstein kind of way. Let's face it, I'm still sitting here on my bed, paralyzed by so many choices :)