I am blessed. To be given the opportunity to help people is simply a blessing from God. To be given the privilege to make a difference in a person’s life, however small or big, is an immense blessing. So I start in His name: our Lord, the Most Merciful, the Most Generous.
I am currently organizing a national children’s book drive for less-fortunate youth in the D.C. area called the "Bring on the Books" drive. Georgetown University is at the center of this drive, leading other great national partners towards the belief that all children deserve the opportunity to have children’s books, that education should not be simply reserved for a few, select amount of children.
I have been doing this type of drive for six years and throughout that time I was fortunate to make a difference. But I feel this time is a different scenario, a different movement. This year, I have involved numerous organizations and institutions. The amount of work it takes to work, organize, plan, and administer a book drive is great, particularly when it revolves around one individual. So the pressure has definitely increased this semester; I want to make this book drive effective and great. Greatness is only attained by attention to the little details. As a result, it has taken a lot of work to make things just right. Furthermore, I believe that this drive deserves to be treated as great because it is for great individuals: less-fortunate children.
But I don’t want to just donate books to children. I don’t want to simply pass out books to children, walk away, and act as if I made a significant difference. That’s too little. That’s not enough. Donating books is one aspect of the drive. But there’s another aspect that I believe that is important. That aspect is humanity. We may be different from one another. We may have different skin colors or cultures, personalities, likes or dislikes. But at the end of the day, we are bound together by a single bond, under a single light, on a single but scattered path. This is a reality. And it is this reality that is, at times, forgotten.
We must remember that we are all great. Particularly, those children who are suffering from a malnutrition of opportunities. Within every child there is greatness. These children need to know that. They need to know that they have the ability to make a difference in this world. This is one of my goals of the Bring on the Books drive.
All I see is a profound sense of mendacity, wrapped with avarice, and tied in the ribbons of nihilism. I hope that I can remind those around me that we must care for those who are less-fortunate. This giving should not be fueled by extrinsic desires but by love. For it is with love that humanity exists. Love doesn’t have tongue. Love doesn’t have eyes. Love only knows how to give breath to the soul, wake it up, and get it out of the bed of repose —how to get us to see the morning light and how to open our eyes to the Truth. This is the fuel that drives the "Bring on the Books" Initiative: love.
Yes, I am a fool. Why? Because I believe in people’s innate sense of good. I realize that this vision is optimistic. But I won’t give up on it because I have nothing to lose. I was introduced to this world with love, I started to walk because of love, I gained accomplishments, however little they were, because of love, and I am here initiating this book drive out of love. Everything that I have, my existence is due to love. I am essentially nothing without God’s love. And until that love is removed from me will I stop because at that point I will not exist.
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