Dare to Matter by Jordan Kassalow

Author:Jordan Kassalow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2019-02-12T16:00:00+00:00

Rolling the Stone from the Well

Think of the world you carry within you, and call this

thinking what you will; whether it be remembering your

own childhood or yearning toward your own future—only

be attentive to that which rises up in you and set it above

everything that you observe about you. What goes on in your

innermost being is worthy of your whole love.

—RAINER MARIA RILKE

I once was invited to come talk about VisionSpring at Waynesburg University, a Christian college in Pennsylvania. After the lecture, I spoke briefly with an undergraduate student named Chris, who was in the early days of discovering how to make his life matter, and already working on an interesting social venture with Costa Rican coffee farmers.

When I returned to New York, Chris sent me a really nice e-mail by way of follow-up. He talked more about being on the quest to discover the need that needed him most and said, “I don’t know the exact details yet, but I’m planning to ‘bloom where I’m planted,’ as the saying goes.”

I often think of the way that Chris described his path because blooming where you’re planted requires discovering your roots. Much of why Chris had set out on his journey to matter had everything to do with his understanding of himself as a Christian and what that meant for the life he hoped to build. In that sense, Chris was growing out of a story much bigger than himself—of history, culture, and family.

Chris reminded me that before you can grow into yourself and reach out to others, you have to dig down first. You have to understand where you come from and know where your life and your vision for making a difference fit within the context of a story that began long before you. As you discover where you fit in the world’s ongoing story, you must also find where your life fits into the larger story of your family and your people. You have to ask yourself what unfulfilled dream of your ancestors will you make a reality as you dream your own dreams of a better world. And you have to understand that you have to partner with your past to create your present and make a brighter future.

When I was a little older than Chris, I was far from as rooted as he was. Like many of the other kids I knew growing up in the shelter of our upper-middle-class suburb, I grew up in a nominally Jewish home. Synagogue for the “big” holidays (the Jewish New Year and the Day of Atonement), gifts and candles at Hanukkah, and a bar mitzvah on the checklist. I was raised to appreciate my religion, but not to be religious. Sometimes I felt at home in Judaism, and sometimes I felt like a stranger in its house.

For the most part, being Jewish was part of me because I was born Jewish. It was sort of like white noise—always on in the background, but not something I chose to listen to.

So

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