"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out," wrote Albert Schweitzer. "It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being."
Perhaps you, like Scott Russell Sanders, have been so touched by a young person's idealism that you paused to look more closely at your own. So often, hope in the voice of a child rekindles the elders' ideals. That could be their gift, the child teaching the parent.
From a different vantage point, we can look back to be inspired by our own youthful idealism. For we have also held high hopes for ourselves and for society.
We can tell ourselves those seemingly naive hopes have been dashed, and let ourselves feel disappointed and disillusioned. Or we can choose to see a different slice of reality: We have changed the world.
Some might say that of our parents' generation, indeed of every generation. But I know from personal experience that my own, the baby boomer generation, has indeed done the impossible.
What seems strange to me is that we've largely forgotten the role that we played. Recall for a moment the opening pages of this book and the story of the eradication of smallpox, the first time that a global threat was solved by human cooperation on a global scale.
Some people are aware, at least vaguely, of this bit of history. Less widely known is exactly who carried out the campaign. As a recent PBS special reported, "young idealists" were recruited for the task of delivering vaccine to every corner of the Earth.
Dr. D.A. Henderson, leader of the eradication effort, recalls that "a number of them had rather long hair. They certainly weren't individuals who were likely to show up and be well-received at an embassy cocktail party, but they worked tirelessly. They were real heroes." (At least one did get dressed up. Larry Brilliant, now head of the Google Foundation, lived in a Himalayan monastery during the 1960s. Then a guru told him to put on a three-piece suit and go to work with the leadership of the World Health Organization to eradicate smallpox.)
Thanks to the heroic efforts of many, including assorted hippies, freaks, and do-gooders, there has not been a single case of smallpox since 1977.
During the years of the smallpox campaign, the same generation of young idealists reshaped society in countless other ways. We changed social agreements about the status of women and the significance of skin color, stopped a war, drove presidents from office, took responsibility for the health of the planet. We showed that "power to the people" was more than a chant, it was a sign of things to come.
Today, we can see the results all around us. Yet, as I've said before, we usually take those changes for granted instead of noticing how profound they have been and remembering how they came about.
We have every right to believe in ourselves and in our ability to create the world we want.