saving the world

A Marine once told me that teachers were the defenders of civilization. A Marine. Who had seen combat. Said teachers - like me - were the defenders of civilization. What a powerful, empowering, and scary thought. And so every day I try to teach and expose and show and correct and lead and help and demonstrate that education is important and that these people matter and that being middle age isn't so bad after all. I've challenged my students to write 1,000 words a day, so I'm taking the challenge myself. But beyond these things, and raising three young boys and caring for a husband who has a chronic illness, doing charity work or giving to causes that do - what can people do to save the world? Is teaching enough? Someone said that all it takes for evil to flourish is for good people to do nothing. So everyone should be doing something. The world still seems to be spinning out of control - Turkey, Venezuela, and Syria are on the brink of tragedy. The missing airliner is a huge month-long mystery. I worry for my kids and what the world will be like when they're older, or how the world will even be tomorrow. It's hard not to give up. Ernest Hemingway said that the world is a fine place and worth fighting for. I just wish it looked like more people were fighting on our side.