Acritic once advocated that Sparta become a democracy. Lycurgus, its great lawmaker, responded with the quip, “Make your own household a democracy first.”
It’s easy to have opinions about what other people do. It’s less fun to hold yourself to your own standards. You don’t like the ever-expanding national debt? Okay . . . but are your finances in great shape? You hate these ballplayers who sign contracts and then demand trades, abandoning the teams who made and paid them? But don’t you have your eye on a new career opportunity? You don’t like celebrities making a mockery of marriage . . . and how’s your own these days? You think these politicians should grow a pair . . . but what truths are you speaking, and at what risk? The point is: the place to apply your opinions about the way the world should work is first and foremost in the small world where you actually have some control. That is to say, at home. If you want to see a difference in the world, then model that change and make a difference at home. You’ve got plenty to work with, plenty to fix, plenty to improve. Start there.
Show your kids that change is possible. Show them why your opinions matter, and how they can make theirs matter. Let them witness the real impact that comes from practicing what one preaches. Help them benefit from a focus on the practical instead of the theoretical, the actual instead of the hypothetical.
Start now.