Shaking the World Gently- on the Piedmont

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

This past weekend, I went to Environmental Studies on the Piedmont. And while I was only there for 2 hours, I worked alongside more than a dozen others. And when I truly took a second to look at the progress we’d made, I was duly impressed with the scene before me.

We weren’t loud and overzealous with advertising our work (though I can’t say the same for the way we interacted with each other!), but focused on the task at hand. Not one of us could singularly move a mountain of dead branches and vines, but together we moved everything into place. Everyone fell into an efficient rhythm and had their own mini-task to complete so the overall scene improved.

Gandhi says you can make a nice change by going after something quietly. I love this idea of humility, because it puts a greater focus on the work being done and not praising the people who do it. Service work is about helping people, not about telling everyone how great you are for doing it.

What do you interpret Gandhi’s quote to mean?



3 Responses to “Shaking the World Gently- on the Piedmont”

  1.   Rodrigo Says:

    I LOVE THIS. You are so right, service should be out of passion and commitment for the activity, not for a title or “need” to be in the spotlight. I feel that those that look for the title of leadership or look to put the service on a resume are not leaders at all, and fall into a serious problem when trying to tackle social problems. Gandhi’s quote embraces the idea of change in a quiet way because those who flaunt leadership and “superiority” are those that are wrong and shouldn’t be a leader.

  2.   jsakevic Says:

    I agree with you and Rodrigo. I really like how Rodrigo said that the service should be out of passion and not title. With the Gandhi quote, I think he was talking about how you don’t have to go out and say what service you are going to do, but rather do it and see how it impacts the community.

  3.   Lori Lawson Says:

    I think that the work done that day definitely fits under the quote. Not only was it a humble gesture, it was also one that could have been easily written off as unimportant. We could have all easily questioned what good was coming out of us moving a few branches, but instead we knew that our work, even if mundane, was certainly part of a larger picture. I think this is another interpretation of the quote – even small measures can reshape the world. As you said, even those small measures made a large change over the two hours you were there. We definitely need to keep this mentality in everything we do. (Though dreaming big is certainly acceptable as well!)

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