I spend a lot of time thinking about how I’m going to leave this world better than I found it. This is a bugaboo of a thing to spend any time worrying about because the scope is grossly un-bracketed. I could satisfy my sense of social responsibility by creating an organization that brings food or educational resources to third world countries, or by raising two fantastic children who carry forward the same desire to do good.
This weekend my family went up to Sacramento to attend the La Leche League regional conference. La Leche League is well known for its goal of promoting breast feeding. Another significant aspect of the LLL philosophy is a parenting modality called Attachment Parenting.
In observing the children of Attachment Parenting families, I have noticed empathy, compassion, self confidence, and an emotional intelligence that I feel the world is in dire need of. After spending a weekend with these children, and reflecting on other AP and LLL kids that I’ve played with, I’m quite sure that the volunteer work that Victoria is doing with LLL is the kind of contribution that I’ve been dreaming of making to the world. If my contribution to LLL is simply to provide the financial stability to allow our family to contribute then that, combined with my direct contributions to raising my own children will be enough for me.