July/August 2004 Spirituality
Changing Ourselves, Changing Our World

by Maryanne Williamson

"We have more control over the external world than we think we do. The big secret is how much power we actually do have to change things. We have turned politics into a spectator sport, and American democracy is not meant to be that. We're meant to be in the game. I'm from the generation that stopped a war - the Vietnam War - through activism. Look at the midterm elections in this country, where a few votes here or there would have made all the difference. We have an election in one year, and with that election we could change the course of this country, and through that we could change the course of this world.
"The goal is also to change ourselves. If I'm an angry person, my anger does not transform my environment. But if I change and become more forgiving, more service-oriented, more of a peacemaker, then the entire environment around me changes."

---Maryanne Williamson