However strong the desire to contribute might be, there's an equally strong tendency to deny that our efforts have made any difference.
Let me tell you why I'd say that. I grew up on Lake Erie, swimming every day all summer long. Then one summer the perch began to float belly-up around me. Today, I'm deeply grateful to the people who took initiative and restored the lake--and to everyone who is a steward of the wonders of this planet.
A few years ago, I wanted to express that gratitude when I was on a panel that included Peter Warshall, then editor of Whole Earth magazine. During the public forum, I tried to thank him for his work on behalf of endangered species. Peter would accept none of my appreciation. He could see only the failures, the species that have been lost, and the magnitude and urgency of the work that still lay ahead. "No," he said, "extinction is forever, and every day the loss is incredible. We cannot rest."
I stood my ground. "Well, even if you close your ears, Peter, I am grateful to you for what you've done."
It still surprises me: Hundreds of interviews we've conducted have confirmed that people give their all to make the world a better place, and then refuse to admit that they've had any effect. Even when it's clear that a person has made contributions of great consequence, they'll deny their power and influence.
"I haven't done much," said a board member of two national environmental groups, during an interview about his life of contribution. He had invested decades of personal leadership--and hundreds of thousands of dollars--in that cause and others important to him. Still he discounted his part and denied what he had accomplished.
Entire social movements can even come to dismiss their contributions to society.
Pam and I worked on the first chapters of this book in a small town near Minneapolis. One afternoon, we took a break to get some exercise. On our way to a new community center, we were talking about some grumbling she'd been hearing from her colleagues in the environmental movement: "People just don't care about the environment. Environmentalism is dead."
Could it be true that decades of dedicated effort to raise awareness had gone for naught?
We walked into the community center. Etched into glass at the top of a wall, in letters ten inches high, were eight words representing the community values that were commemorated in the building. Right in the middle: "environmentalism."
Just a few months after that experience, we marveled that people all over the world were paying to watch a film of a former U.S. vice president's slide-show lecture on global warming.
All around us are signals that we have indeed been effective in advancing our highest ideals. Why do we seem so determined to deny that we've had any influence? It's really something.
Could it be that we're just trying to seem humble? After all, we've spent our lives being taught to perfect our skills of self-deprecation. Perhaps we habitually move our accomplishments into the "taken for granted" column, as we do with so many good things in all areas of our lives. Maybe whatever we've achieved is simply eclipsed by our admirable desire to get on to the tasks that remain.
I certainly admire a refusal to rest on one's laurels. But when we notice our successes and acknowledge the part we played in bringing them about, we take a crucial step toward even more effective social action.