One step

"Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforseen incidents. Take one step, and the universe moves with you." Goethe, W.H. Murray, and me.*

It's working!! People are taking us up on our Invitation. We took a step, and people we don't know are taking steps with us. And providence (or the universe, if you like) seems to be moving as we had hoped in a whole stream of unforseen incidents:

In the six days since our launch of HumanKindMedia, the HumanKind Challenge has definitely started to move.

Malaria No More has offered to set up a HumanKind Media specific donation area on their site so we can track your mosquito net donations for the HumanKind Challenge. A bednet can save a father from malaria so he can work, can save a mother so she can raise and care for her children, can save a child so he or she can grow up. Bednets = less extreme poverty. You can buy a bednet here.

A mosquito abatement company in Kansas (how cool is that?) owned by Paul Friedrichs has agreed to match our first 50 (we’re almost there, Paul!) nets.

My friend Karen, who received my announcement e-mail, sent the HumanKind Media link to….well, I stopped counting at 50--enough to match Paul's net donation--other people, and our site visits spiked the day after her e-mail, which means some of Karen's friends visited, and the people you forwarded the e-mail to visited, too. Thanks, Karen.

And, last but not least, my Mom (you can call her Peggy), bought three nets (reminds me of when I was trying to sell Girl Scout Cookies) and said “Keep up the good work”, which even at my age is still high praise from Mom. Thanks, Mom.

It''s all downhill from here.

What's NEW?

Our favorite illustration of how synchronous the Internet universe moves to make something like HumanKind Media possible is NANOWRIMO founded by Chris Baty. Read Liz's interview with Chris to hear how a fun, small idea grew into a huge community.

P.S.
In case you've decided not to read Jeffrey Sachs' book just yet, he quotes John F. Kennedy at the end:

"Let no one be discouraged by the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills--against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence... It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

--which is my simple explanation of why we picked mosquito nets for our inaugural HumanKind Challenge out of all the things to start with--little ripples--in the sudoku puzzle of healing the world.

If you like what we're up to, take your own "one step" to meet your own longing to do something to heal someone somewhere in the world. If you like our current HK Challenge, buy a net.

Our inaugural blog went mostly to our families, friends, colleagues, and some people we admire but don't know well. This time we're promoting this one step idea: Take one step. E-mail this to as many people as you can think of; subscribe to HumanKind Media; participate in the HumanKind Challenge; or pick one small thing you can do to mark your intention to contribute your own unique boldness to the healing of the world. If you're already doing something, send us a comment, so we can share your idea or the global cause you feel passionate about with others. If you haven't found your muse in the global healing arena yet, stay with us. Something will spark. Providence will move with us into unimaginable possibilities.

*The introductory quote is my jumbling of two fabulous quotes from an early Everest climber and Goethe (if you're a quotation addict like me, see the correct full versions below).

THE REAL QUOTES
In the Scottish Himalayan Expedition, W.H. Murray said,

"But when I said that nothing had been done, I erred in one important matter. We had definitely committed ourselves and were halfway out of our ruts. We had put down our passage money--booked a sailing to Bombay. This may sound too simple, but is great in consequence. Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.

"Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, the providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets: "

And Goethe's deeply respected couplet is translated as,

"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!"