Mother Teresa was a Roman Catholic nun who had devoted her life to helping the poor and the disadvantaged around all parts of the world. She spent most of her years in India where she came up with charity missionaries which were mainly set for the rescue of the needy in the society. She was awarded the Noble Prize for the selfless work that she devoted her life into and later in 1979 and later in 2016 she was canonized as Saint Teresa. In her mission, she always left people with many quotes which are memorable and motivating. One of these quotes is “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.” In this paper is an argumentative essay on the words that were said by Mother Teresa.
The desire of changing the world sounds very grand, heroic and noble but the question is, is this possible? Is there is any possibility of changing the world so that people can shower us with praise? I think the right answer is that it is possible to make a difference in the world and not changing the world in general. A big difference between changing the world and making a difference in the world should be realized and I believe a difference can be made but not a change. The world, in general, is very huge and it is impossible for every human being to agree with the change made. In every region, there are people who will reject the changes made. Under contrary, it is very easy and possible to make a difference in the world as one can work with the positive group and successfully make progress without resistance.
The challenges that face people around the world did not naturally arise, but they emanate from human beings. For example, corruption is the main problem that leads many third world countries to hatred and poverty. The leaders who lead people are corrupt, and they misuse the property of the government for their benefits, but people still elects them back to leadership. By giving the wrong people the role of leadership, countries will never make progress, and the citizens will ever be suffering. If the missionaries and agencies come up with programs to help the poor in the particular country, indeed, they will get a remedy, but considering the size of the world, they cannot make it save all the poor people in all continents. However, the few who will be reached by the service will be helped and saved; therefore, a difference in the world can be made but not a complete world change.
The world is experiencing an extension of some wild animal species in the recent years; this has led to the barn of hunting of those species to prevent the extinction. The step by the government to ban hunting of species like white rhinos and Jaguars is a very positive step, and a difference will be made to the specific species. However, this will not stop the hunters from hunting other wild animals except those, which are restricted. By doing this, no change will be made towards hunting, but a difference will be made. On the other hand, if corrupt leaders are brought down by the court of law, other corrupt leader springs up with time. If the developed countries decide to help the third world countries to make a step forward regarding better living standards, another country falls back to poverty. These processes make it reasonable to say the world cannot be changed completely.
Change can only be made if we first change ourselves before changing others as Mother Teresa quoted again that “If everyone only cleaned their doorstep, the whole world would be clean.” I conquer with the quote, as it is very wrong to point fingers at others for the same thing that we do. Things like corruption, injustice, adultery, stealing from others or even killing are practiced at a basic level by many people either directly or indirectly. Therefore, for the change was meant to be spread to all parts of the world by Mother Teresa to be made, we should change ourselves first. Otherwise, no change will be made but it’s only difference to certain groups of people from different regions. We can only change ourselves by loving others, being unselfish and ourselves, forgiving others and complaining less.
In conclusion, it is right to say from the proofs above that it is not possible to change the world, but it is possible to make a difference. The impossibility is a result of the difference in perspective of human beings given things. Something that could be very positive for a group of people and very negative to another group and therefore the variance makes the change difficult to me implemented by everybody. Moreover, we need to change ourselves to experience a significant world change.
- Collopy, Michael. Works of Love Are Works of Peace: Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the Missionaries of Charity. Ignatius Press, 2016.
- Sharif, Azadeh, and Faiz Sathi Abdullah. “Persuasive Discourse in Ceremonial Speeches of Mother Teresa: A Critical Review.” International Journal of Education and Research 2.12 (2014): 319-332.