A world worthy of its children

I always seem to be looking for quotes on new beginnings at the start of a new month, and July is no exception.  The Edinburgh papers are full of Picasso just now (ahead of an exhibition that's about to open) and this put me in mind of something of his that I read some time back, and has stuck with me ever since.

"Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone."

And that doesn't just apply to things we want to make happen in our own lives - it's about things that we want to achieve for other people, the legacy that we want to create as we go along, the change that we want to see, (to be) in the world.  Changes that we can make, now, all of us: small changes in the way that we work, and write, and communicate; changes in the way that we teach, and share and learn.

Here's another great quote from Picasso that captures this feeling, this mood, this impatience better than my fumbling attempt to find the right words:

"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. 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.”

With such a task ahead of us, why wait until tomorrow?

Comments

[Peter]

That is a great quote

[Joanna Young]

Hi Peter, it is great isn't it?

He manages to capture an entire approach to life in a single paragraph - with so many rich words and ideas, so many points of inspiration that we can keep on coming back to.

Joanna