Book Synopsis
Can we create a world that is "worthy of our children"?
"Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again. And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything (including solving every problem in the paragraph below). Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its children." Pablo Picasso, Spanish Artist and Painter, 1881-1973
At the moment we are leaving our children: non-stop wars, a stockpile of wmd's capable of ending all life on Earth forever, collapsing economies worldwide, an epidemic of legal and illegal drug abuse, systems of education that stifle creativity, a rapidly changing environment for which no one knows the consequences, and no effective methods of engineering water, food and energy solutions for an exploding population. To name a few. Right now we need more Difference-makers who can think differently to help us solve these problems.
"Success means making a difference for the people, the places, and the ideas that you care about." Danielle Fong - who escaped (her word) from grade school at the age of 12 and now, at barely twice that age, has already been called by Forbes Magazine: "A person who may change the world."
“You can’t solve a problem with the same type of thinking that created it.” Albert Einstein.