I know of an elderly woman who isn’t your stereotypical grandmother. Most individuals, male and female alike, would be happy to retire in a nice home with a nice retirement check. The American standard is to spend your “Golden Years” vacationing and lounging. After all, you did earn it. But this widow has a different plan. Instead of retiring to a rocking chair on the back porch, she is defying mediocrity and the status quo. She will be boarding a plane to Africa in a couple of months to spend her retirement toiling with all her might to make the World a better place.
It is hard to imagine a widow in her late sixties going off into the bush of Africa to change/save the world. Her defiance should be a standard for all of us. We get so caught up in what we are “supposed to be doing” that we forget to even imagine the possibilities of greatness and goodness. We are supposed to get married, get a career, get some kids, send the kids to college, retire and die. What a terrible existence that we are so easily drawn into. This culture and society sucks people into mediocrity. Unless we defy that mediocrity just like the widow has done, we and this world are doomed to normality. Normality sounds pretty good at first, but the problem with normality is that it is full of people who are depressed, starving, addicted, and homeless. It is full of war and genocide. Thus, normality is like a disease and our imagination and empowered decisions to change are the cure.
