Reading The Blue
Sweater was heartwarming and encouraging. Following Jacqueline Novogratz’s
personal journey of alleviating poverty was a great first-hand look into the
lives of those affected by poverty and the solutions that work best for them. At
the beginning of Jacqueline’s journey, she envisioned that she alone would be
able to change the world, or at least make a significant contribution. However,
as she met both women and men who were affected by poverty, learned from their
personal journeys and saw the capabilities of humans to do both good and bad,
she realized that changing the world would take more than just one woman.
As I was reading this book, I admired Jacqueline’s
perseverance in trying to better the lives of the people in Africa. She faced much opposition from those she tried
to help in the beginning and went through many personal challenges but she continued
to help. At the end of the book she also makes a point that changing the world
requires more than one source of leadership, and contribution from every human to
make it happen. I thought this was the most important point in setting the
stage for change. Humans are not autonomous and require the assistance of other
humans to survive. I believe that a world in which cooperation and assistance
are prioritized, lives can be changed for the better. I am happy that I was
able to read this book, because it put things in perspective for me again by
making me realize that cooperation is important and needed to alleviate poverty,
environmental degradation and all other challenges human beings face. I was
able to perceive from reading The Blue
Sweater, that that the world was built by all and so it must be maintained
by all and I think this is an important lesson.
Indeed, reading The Blue Sweater was an enjoyable experience. Hearing Jacqueline's determination and commitment to alleviating poverty was very heartwarming. I know I often get busy with my own life sometimes but this book was a good reminder to keep others in our thoughts and actions.
ReplyDeleteOh I love the last line of your post: "I was able to perceive from reading The Blue Sweater, that that the world was built by all and so it must be maintained by all and I think this is an important lesson." Such a good point! I also found that there are some broad themes that can be taken from this book. The idea that cooperation and teamwork is important--even in our everyday lives--is something that we all have to work on.
ReplyDeleteI love how you mentioned that it requires cooperation from every person to fully make a difference, which is something that I don't think enough people realize. I agree that if we refocused and notice that by working together we can face greater challenges and make a larger impact overall.
ReplyDeleteI agree the last line of your post is incredible and I think that is exactly the point or at least what Jacqueline wishes to achieve. Everyone should be more considerate and cooperate to make the world a better place. As Jacqueline would put it: "it's one community, it's our community."
ReplyDeleteJacqueline definitely had perseverance. As I mentioned in my blog post, Jacqueline's journey really reminded me a lot of Growing a Farmer and Kurt's journey. Both of them were so naive at the beginning, but continued to persevere throughout the books. I also agree that The Blue Sweater really put things in perspective for me.
ReplyDeleteI think the reason why Jacqueline set her leadership program every year was that she realized she could not help to make the world a better place just by herself. It is always important that people cooperate with each other, leading by those insightful, and I think it will be extremely important for us college students to learn to collaborate with our peers.
ReplyDeleteI truly agree that it takes cooperation from everyone to make a change. I think having different leaderships in their society would help them to grow for the better. I was amazed by how Jacqueline never gave up after her journey encountering different hardships.
ReplyDeleteI like how you talk about cooperation and assistance. I think a lot of the problems in the world can be solved only when the effort is a team effort. The more brains we put together, the easier a solution gets.
ReplyDelete