Maya Angelou

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength. We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapesty, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter their color.
-Maya Angelou, Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now

There are some famous people who inspire me... and Maya Angelou is at the top of the list. I first saw her on a TV show when I was 14 years old. I was in awe of Maya Angelou and her wisdom. The words I remember most from that first encounter with her are, "We are all capable of great good and great evil." Before hearing that statement, I didn't really think that I was capable of great evil. However, I quickly realized had one single thing been different in my life or had I not been loved... I could easily have been responsible for great evil. There are so many layers of meaning to that simple phrase, but at age 14, it raised my awareness of how we are all essentially the same inside, but the conditions into which we are born and the experiences we have throughout life, shape our actions. We're all responsible for our actions regardless of life experience... but I've come to believe that some of us are gifted with a higher responsibility to make this world a better place. We are called to inject great good into the world. And it need not be a "good" that makes headlines. Another person at the top of my "hero" list is Mother Theresa, who says, "We are not called to do great things, but to do small things with great love."