How to Be the Change

"Be the change you want to see in the world"

Such oft-quoted words, and how I wonder what they mean to those who quote them.

How do I interpret this statement?

Well, I've been working in food service for 36 years, in restaurants and bars, cafes and natural food stores, in large, hierarchical kitchens, where everyone has a specific station and function, and in small, Mom and Pop spaces where everyone is trained to do it all, multitasking like the goddess Sarasvati. Throughout my long career, as hourly-wage earner, salaried manager, or barely-squeaking-by owner, I have possessed and promulgated the same attitude about tasks: if you view all work as your own, everything gets done, but if you eschew less enjoyable tasks, engaging only in the tasks you prefer, there are some key tasks that will never get completed. These are usually related to cleaning, by the way.

So, there you are, working in the kitchen, avoiding crawling behind the dishwasher to eradicate the food and grime that falls back there and pools into a slimy insect breeding ground because you, like Bartleby the Scrivener, "would prefer not to." Often, though, you stand around complaining about your lazy co-workers, and the stench, and the fruit flies, and the general lack of cleanliness you find so offensive. Now you've become part of the very problem about which you find yourself complaining. Pretty clear, right?

I see this as an important idea, which carries out into life beyond the kitchen and the time clock and has an effect on the world at large. When we complain about the injustices, the inequities, the disturbing, worrisome, mounting array of problems society is facing, but we fail to take action to address them, we have become part of those very problems. We've got to BE the very specific, direct change that we want to see in our lives, in the lives of others, and in the world. If each and everyone of us gets behind the dishwasher, right at the moment that our senses find it offensive, we remove one point of suffering and difficulty from the world, and make a positive contribution to our own (and, by extension, others') well-being.

In life, we get now. We get THIS moment to do and be all that we believe in and value. Don't point fingers, or wait for others to grant permission, or fall into apathetic hopelessness when you are confronted by the tasks so many of us view as unpleasant but we all know need to get done. BE that change that you want to see in the world. And do it right now.

Here I go...