Share words

[Liu Chong]

One is from Najib Mahfuz, I took this sentence from his book Children of the Alley, he won the Nobel Prize for literature in Oct 1988. It's a great book, trust me. As I read the Chinese vision, i have to translate it in English, there would be some mistakes.

"Work for yourself, as you are going to live forever; work for others, as you are going to die tomorrow."

Another is from movie Precious.

"Some folks got a light around them that shine for other people. I think maybe some of them was in tunnels, and in that tunnel, maybe the only light they had was inside of them. and then, even long after they escaped that tunnel, they still be shinning for everybody else."

There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes. What have you read from these sentence? I have read different require of ourselves and other people.I have read help and love. And the all works that we are doing need our faith and persistence. hope you will like these words.

[Liu Chong]

thank you Dan, im going to read these blogs. Bradley, I like "If we have hope, we can give these kids hope, and hopefully things will get better", and i like the quote from James Dean very much. I have heard of it before, but i dont know it comes from James Dean till you said it, thank you. :)

[Bradley Troast]

Your first quote reminds me of a quote from James Dean, a famous American actor who died tragically in 1955 at the age of 24. He said, "Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." It is interesting how such a quote can be understood across cultures. "Tomorrow is not promised" is something else that a lot of people say.

For many youth in Chicago and other cities living in poverty, the meaning of these quotes may be different, and their significance greater. Whether it be violence, a poor performing school, or lack of access to quality tutor/mentor programs, "tomorrow is not promised" for a lot of these kids. They, too, "live as if you'll die today," but often times in a desperate way, not a hopeful way. For those of us working with youth, it is important to display hopefulness in our work. If we have hope, we can give these kids hope, and hopefully things will get better.

[Daniel Bassill]

Jenny, our job is to try to inspire people to live the words of Najib Mahfuz, so more people have an urgency each day to do something that makes the world a better place for everyone else. I encourage you to read some of the blogs on the T/MC site and see what ideas you might find that you can share, or apply.