Want to change the world?
“Want to change the world? There’s nothing to it.”
When Gene Wilder first sang those words in the 1971 film, very few people took notice. Contrary to popular belief the film was not a commercial success, grossing only $2 million.
Critics were split: Roger Ebert raved, “Probably the best film of its sort since The Wizard of Oz,” while Gene Siskel wrote, “Nothing in the factory is appealing.” Roald Dahl, whose book was the source of this movie adaptation, disowned the film for putting too much emphasis on Wonka and not enough on Charlie, and making major alterations to his original plot.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory didn’t truly find an audience until the mid 1980s, when regular television broadcasts brought the strange, uneven, and occasionally scary family movie into the lives, hearts, and minds of a wide audience.
It is now one of the most iconic and enduring films of all time, not in spite of its flaws and eccentricities, but because of them.
And at the core of its staying power is, I believe, the fundamental belief expressed in the lyric at the top of this article.
The World is Your World
“If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it. Anything you want to, do it.”
All children believe they can change the world. Why wouldn’t they? Anything can be anything in a child’s imagination.
A toothbrush can be a magic wand. A rock can be an Infinity Stone. A child can be a princess, an astronaut, a world famous chef, and a dragon, all in the same afternoon, simply by imagining it’s possible.
And then we grow up. Or at least, that’s what we think we’re doing.
To paraphrase the late great Ken Robinson,
“Everyone is born creative, but we are educated out of it.”
A large part of our formal education is focused on understanding just how small we are in the context of the wider world. That’s a really important lesson, because it teaches humility and encourages understanding. But it's often missing the corollary: Just because something exists in your world doesn’t make it any less important or valuable than things that exist in the world.
And because we fail to teach that corollary to kids, we tend to grow more cynical as we get older. The world is simply too large to make a “real” difference.
If you rolled your eyes at that iconic line from Willy Wonka, “simply look around and do it,” that’s why. We know it’s not simple, and we really can’t change the world.
Maybe everyone can’t change the world. But you can certainly change your world.
The Ripple Effect
Your world is probably bigger than you think. It starts with you and the people you immediately come into contact with on a regular basis: your household, family, roommates or neighbors.
In-and-of itself, that’s a world worth changing for the better. Making a pot of coffee for your partner or roommate who had a late night before they wake up, even though you don’t drink coffee, is a small kindness.
But that kindness puts someone else in a better mood. They’ve got a pep in their step instead of feeling miserable from the late night, so they compliment a stranger on their cool hat. That stranger gets a boost of energy and pays it forward, and suddenly your tiny change in your world becomes a large ripple in the world.
New Year’s Resolution
I rarely make resolutions, as I’ve written about in the past. I don’t see the calendar flipping from Dec 31 to Jan 1 as different from any other day of the year. It’s easy to fall into the trap of waiting for next year to make a change, so I try to implement changes worth making whenever they come up, regardless of where I am in the calendar.
This year feels different. After such a tumultuous 2020 it’s hard not to wish for a magic transformation in 2021. Of course, we have another long, difficult year ahead. But there is hope, both from a medical science standpoint and a humanity standpoint.
We saw a lot of the worst of humanity come bubbling to the surface last year. Dire circumstances sometimes bring people together, but fight-or-flight can also throw people into “everyone for themselves” mode.
I don’t blame the folks who fell into the latter.
But if we adopt the new year as a blank slate, in its most naive, ideal form, then we’ve got a choice to make: This year, 2021, are we going to change the world for the better, or let it continue spiraling out of control?
I can’t speak for or control anyone but myself. I’m dedicating this year to changing the world. And by the world I of course mean my world.
Will you join me?
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