You alone have the power to change the world and make it perfect, the way you always wanted it to be. You can change people or create new forms of life. You can make the world reflect your own sense of beauty, your own values and beliefs. What kind of brave new world would emerge?

In her poem, ‘’The Summer Day,’’ Mary Oliver writes about making time to look at all the beauty of the world, even to kneel in the grass to look at insects, or to walk through the fields and enjoy the day without hurrying. Life is very short – ‘’Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?’’ she asks (read her poem at: http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/133.html).

And then she ends her poem with two amazing lines to form the question:

‘’Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?’’

So, dear writer, tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? What do want to accomplish in your lifetime? What things do you want to do before you die? What things do you want to see before you leave this life? Which person do you want to love? What do you want to taste before you die? What do you want to achieve?

 

An electronic game designer develops an app for mobile phones that in short time becomes extremely popular — people can’t stop playing with it. Then, suddenly, the developer takes down, or removes, the app from public use because, he says, it is having a negative effect on the players. He says that the game caused players unexpected addiction — something that he could not bear to see.

What about you — can you develop an app that people would want to use all the time? What would it do? What would you call it?

A young woman boards the New York City subway and sits down beside a rider. ”Can I ask you a question?” she says. ”’Every time I ride the subway, I ask a stranger to write a poem. Would you write one?”

The rider smiles, takes pen to paper and begins composing her poem. What does she write?

You alone have the power to change the world and make it perfect, the way you always wanted it to be. You can change people or create new forms of life. You can make the world reflect your own sense of beauty, your own values and beliefs. What kind of brave new world would emerge?

Imagine you could tell the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. what he means to you and this country. What would you say to him? What impact has he had on your life and that of your family?