martinimade

Marvin this week (or, more accurately, last week.):

What does it really mean to be a citizen of the world? How do you understand the concept, and who are the five people who best exemplify your understanding(s)? They can be living or dead, fictional or non-fictional.

Even after reading a few of the responses, which you can do too if you check out the list on the left of other Friday Fivers, I'm still not sure how to define "citizen of the world." For me, a global good person is one who works to make their local world better. I don't think you can start fixing the world at large until you can clean up your own crap, you know? That said, here's a couple of folks who seem to be making a difference in small ways, which ultimately reverberate into bigger things, imo.

1) Jimmy Carter. Not the greatest president, granted, but has redeemed himself in spades since leaving the White House. Would that all presidents could do the same.

2) Almost anyone who volunteers at a non-profit, especially one that tries to make the lot of older folks, kids or animals a little bit easier to deal with. You can tell a lot about a place by how it deals with those less able to fight for their own rights.

3) Yoga instructors who teach with both enthusiasm and integrity. At the risk of sounding like a New Age flake (which I'm really, really, really not), almost everyone could benefit from a little bit of yoga every day. And I have little idea why--but feel we'd all be much better able to deal with the day-to-day-ness of life a bit better, then, in turn, handle each other a little bit better, then, in turn, deal with the world a little bit better. You can see where I'm going with this.

4) My feminist foremothers like Margaret Sanger who pushed for safe and effective contraception. I find it interesting that most of the other Friday Five lists contain mostly men. Maybe more women will make the same list when compiled 50 years from now, simply because they don't have to spend their lives chained to kinder and kuchen. Unless they want to, of course.

5) My friends Shelley and Ola. Can't quite explain why. I think it's because he's Swedish. The Swedes seem to have a better handle on this global thing.