Chapter 6 - The Call of Stories

At the beginning of this chapter, he tells a storiy about Virginia Ramirez who was challenged by her community for their lack of compassion. Virginia watched her elderly neighbor die due to local poverty and detiorating housing needs. She was motivated by this story to rethink her own life and to feel empathy again.  He goes on to tell another story about Chris Kim who was changed by a fourteen year old black boy. The boy stole a pair of pants from the clothing store Chris ran in his minimall in a poor south Seattle neighborhood. Chris and another Korean store owner grabbed him, called the police, and were ready to press charges. Then Chris thought about Christ’s message of responding with forgiveness, not retribution. He decided to talk with the boy and his parents. “We always say we love our neighbors, but we never do it and risk something that belongs to us." Come to find out all the boy wanted was a job and Chris gave it to him because of his faith in God. He said he never would have connected with other races if it wouldn't have been for the boy. Chris also said that once you start to share it get easier and that you can never go back to who you were before.

Chapter 5 - Unforseen Fruits

At the beginning of this chapter he tells a story about going for a run along the riverbank in Texas. On his run he passes a man shaking a tree and wonders what he is doing. He asked the man and he said, "It's a pecan tree,"If I shake it enough, the nuts will come down. I can't know exactly when they'll fall or how many. But the more I shake it, the more I'll get." Remebering this story, he decides that it represents a methaphor for social invovlement. We must strive forward regardless of the partial outcome or lack of immediate results. A civil rights activists says "You have to begin with small groups," but you reach the people who matter and they will reach others."

Chapter 7 - Values, Work, and Family

In chapter seven, Loeb emphasizes some values that we sometimes take for granted: relaxing and family. In todays growing world, it seems that we have to try harder and harder just to maintain our current position. In Juliet Schor's book The Overworked American, she talks about how Americans work an aver 167 more hours per year than they did 40 years ago, which is about the equivalent to a month's worth of work. Americans also take less vacations, spend more time working, face greater amounts of daily stress. Schor stresses the importance of taking that time off but also talks about how many people can't afford to. Many people today are forced to work harder and suffer from things like debt, lack of health insurance, and time for those who must work two jobs to survive. I think that we as a society should try to do more to make our workplace a better place and our workforce a happier and more successful group.

Chapter 8 - Village Politics

In this chapter, he mentions a naive freshman that didn't vote in the 2004 presidential election because she didn't think it mattered. Later that year she was informed by a college professor about the concept of global warming and it stunned her. She was utterly surprised that more people weren't already aware of this and that not very many people was doing anything about it. This is ironic to her situation because she was as ignorant about modern politics as everyone else was about global warming. Hopefully after learning this lesson that she will begin to not take things for granted and to focus on more important things than playing beer pong during the election.

Chapter 4 - The Cynical Smirk

He start out this chapter with a story about seeing an ad for Slate, an online magazine owned by The Washington Post.  The ad talks about how the magazine tells it stories with a certain smirk that people are drawn to. He goes on to talk about people who smirk are self-centered and arrogant, he compares them to grade-school bullies.  He also says that Donald Trump and Marie Antoinette smirk. He wonders if the Slate editors meant for the ad to off this way. They presented it as something to be proud of and that it would boost sales. He talks about how the ad suggest that we ackknowlege that our world is corrupt but that thoughts for changing it is naive. After he goes on to talk about a veteran newpaperman who says "everybody lies, but it's ok because nobody listens." He then tells a story about a father and a son. The father tells his son to jump from the stairs to him, the father catches him the first two times but the third lets him fall to teach him not to trust anyone. We are taught to expect betrayal and we give up hope in people from the beginning.

Chapter 9 - Widening the Circle

Widening the circle is all about expanding your worldly views to extend over a broader range of people. Loeb mentions a former Army Ranger captain Joseph McMormick and his journey to bring together people of different ranges on the political scale. He wanted them all to come together so they could be more understanding of each others views.

Chapter 10 - Pieces of a Vision

This chapter is all about making sure we stay on a moral path when we go address issues that we believe in. Ha talks about finding your moral "magnetic north"and to try not to stray away from that path. He realizes that in today's age that sometimes its hard to keep your morals straight and that its not always easy but its very important to do the best we can. The best way is to start by establishing your basic ethics and build on from there.

Chapter 11 - Coping With Burnout

In Chapter 11, he explains that when we are faced with important causes, we must set boundaries to keep ourselves from being so overwhelmed that we're forced to remove ourselves completely. In the early 1970's, he worked for a small political magazine called Liberation. After the founding editor left, he became the senior staffer and worked 60 hours a week and used a lot of his income to try to keep the magazine going. After his savings ran out, though, he was forced to abandon the magazine after being completely drained both emotionally and financially. The main point he was trying to get across is that you can only sacrifice your normal daily routines for a crisis for so long until you must stop and take a break or you will collapse.

Chapter 12 - The Fullness of Time

In this chapter, Loeb refers to a director that was inspirational to him, Sergei Eisenstein from the Soviet Union. He described him as man who did an excellent job in promoting social change during his time. He utilized the past, present, and future in a way that inspired many people. Loeb also talked about a British art exhibit that re-created his office and included many artifacts of many other inspirational and famous people.  All in all, he was trying to get the point across that no matter what time period you were born in, you still have the full power of creating change and making a difference in the world.

Chapter 3- One Step At A Time

At the start of the chapter he talks about how the problems of the world can often be overwhelming and depressing.  Martin Luther King said there are ways to avoid feeling this way; to live at our own personal pace and take one thing on at a time and not worrying about politics.  He goes on to say that the best way to get involved in social change is "one day at a time."  This method helps us to be able to fight for what we believe in and be able to expect good outcome.  He also says that a change won't always be instant but growth over time will turn out positive.  Phillip Vernier offers advice about change; he says that you shouldn't wait for greatness because not will weaken you further. If you put forth the effort to take the first step, then your outcome will almost double. Social involvement challenges us create our own stories when we come together to speak out on public issues. Having your own story means it's yours to start and finish anywhere you wish.

Chapter 2- We Don't Have To Be Saints

In this chapter the author is talking about how even the greatest people have flaws. He says that even Rosa Parks had her failures regardless of her successes. Here he is talking about how everyone is human and they will all make mistakes along the way.  He goes on to talk about how Ghandi started out as a shy tongue-tied average person. The author says that viewing him as just an average person leaves the doors wide open for the rest of us. I think he is saying that everyone has the power to be great, if they work hard at it. He then talks about how the things that inspire us are too often ignored or forgotten about. If we need to be motivated to go on then we have to take the time to find those little things that will inspire us. He also talks about how ordinary men and women have fought to preserve our freedoms. This chapter is all about how everyone has a chance to be the "greatest."

Chapter 1 - Making Our Lives Count

After I read chapter one, I began to think about what it was truly saying. That if you want to live life to the fullest then you need to live life while serving others. My favorite story was the story of Virgina Ramirez. She went from thinking she was a nobody to believing in herself and becoming a somebody. She spent lots of her time and effort helping others, and she fought for what she believed was right. I was turned off by the story of Rich Cizik because I don't like it when science and religion get crossed. The author is trying to send messages to make you a better person all-around. His stories make you stop and think about yourself and things that you could change to be a better person. They are definitely worth my time and attention because I want to live a good life. I want to help others and reach all the goals that I have set for myself.

I witnessed, a few years ago, kids stealing candy from a grocery store. I was shocked but didn't tell anyone about it. My lack of response let the kids get away with stealing. It affected me because I know now that I should have told the store manager because that was the right thing to do.

I keep my treasures in a small wooden box that was passed down to me after four generations. In the box is my great grandma's old jewerly and keepsakes. They are important because I am really close to my family and they are a way for me to remember her by. I think they say that I am family oriented and that I love my family dearly. In view of my treasures I live my life to leave memories for me to pass down to future genrations. I put my family at the top of my priority list. I intend on adding to my family treasures by getting married and having my own family. For me to obtain these treasures I will need to finish college and start my career.

One of my heroes is my mom. She was diagnosed with cancer when I was two weeks old. She had multiple brain surgeries and many complications. Her stories of fighting cancer makes her the bravest person I know. She lives her life everyday to help others and to take of her family. She always puts herself last and never once complains. My other hero is an Olympic gymnast, Carly Patterson. When she was eighteen years old she was the Olympic All-Around gold medalist. This is the highest accomplishment in the gymnastics world. I  look up to her because I not only was a gymnasts too, but because she fought through all her pain and injuries and managed to come out on top. Both of my heroes had to work hard for their goals and they are very inspirational to me.