The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear
Edited By Paul Rogat Loeb
 

Stone Soup for the World: Life-Changing Stories of Kindness & Courageous Acts of Service
Edited By Marianne Larned
 

Chicken Soup for the Volunteer’s Soul: Stories to Celebrate the Spirit of Courage, Caring & Community
By Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Arline McGraw Oberst, Joel T. Boal, Tom Lagana, Laura Lagana

Energize: Especially for Leaders of Volunteers
Susan J. Ellis, President

Points of Light Foundation/ James J. Hill Volunteer Resource Center

Chronicle of Philanthropy: Newspaper of the Non-Profit World

 

What stops us from acting on issues we care about? Have there been issues where you've wanted to take a stand, but didn't? What stopped you?

If there were issues where you did take stand, what got you involved in your first public issues? What was the process like?

Are you hopeful in your personal life, for your own individual future? Do you have more or less for what's going to happen with this country and with the world?

Do you feel like ordinary citizens really can make a difference? Do you hold back from acting because you think your efforts are futile?

What keeps us going when times get tough? How do we act to create a more humane world, no matter how hard it seems? How do we offer models of involvement for our students when many feel their actions cannot matter?

The Impossible Will Take a Little While gathers stories and essays of engagement that range across nations, eras, and political movements. These visionary and eloquent voices include Diane Ackerman, Sherman Alexie, Maya Angelou, Mary Catherine Bateson, Ariel Dorfman, Marian Wright Edelman, Eduardo Galeano, Susan Griffin, Vasclav Havel, Seamus Heaney, Tony Kushner, Jonathan Kozol, Bill McKibben, Nelson Mandela, Pablo Neruda, Henri Nouwen, Arundhati Roy, Desmond Tutu, Alice Walker, Cornel West, Terry Tempest Williams, and Howard Zinn.

Their voices can help us all keep working for a better world, despite the obstacles. In The Impossible Will Take a Little While, a phrase borrowed from Billie Holliday, the editor of Soul of a Citizen brings together fifty stories and essays that range across nations, eras, wars, and political movements.

Danusha Goska, an Indiana activist with a paralyzing physical disability, writes about overcoming political immobilization, drawing on her history with the Peace Corps and Mother Teresa. Vaclav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic, finds value in seemingly doomed or futile actions taken by oppressed peoples. Rosemarie Freeney Harding recalls the music that sustained the civil rights movement, and Paxus Calta-Star recounts the powerful vignette of an 18-year-old who launched the overthrow of Bulgaria's dictatorship. Many of the essays are new, others classic works that continue to inspire. Together, these writers explore a path of heartfelt community involvement that leads beyond despair to compassion and hope. The voices collected in The Impossible Will Take a Little While will help keep us all working for a better world despite the obstacles.

Author Biography: Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of Soul of a Citizen and three other books. He has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and other publications. He is an associated scholar at Seattle's Center for Ethical Leadership and lives in Seattle, Washington.

About Stone Soup for the World: Life-Changing Stories of Kindness & Courageous Acts of Service, Edited By Marianne Larned

Maybe it was that sense of New England neighborliness that imbued the life of Marianne Larned, as a youth in a small town north of Boston, Massachusetts. Or maybe it was that feeling of responsibility as the oldest of ten children in a family that tried to balance caring for one another with helping others in the community. Surely it was the countless observations of giving and receiving in Larned's life that inspired her sense of "wanting the world to work. . . that feeling and determination to make things better."

At twelve, there were trips to the inner city of Roxbury every week with her mother to help kids learn to read. Larned cherished this time alone with her mother, much of whose time was occupied by Larned's siblings. At an early age, Larned recognized that her mother demonstrated through her volunteering efforts "a strength based in helping others."

Then there were visits from people of different cultures, invited by Larned's world-traveler father, who furnished her with a curiosity and appreciation for those who were different.

Today Larned revels in the success of Stone Soup for the World: Life-Changing Stories of Kindness and Courageous Acts of Service, a book for which she served as editor Called a "handbook for humanitarians," the book features 100 stories celebrating ordinary people doing unforgettable deeds. The stories, which tap our spirit of giving, are inspired by such organizations such as MAD DADS, Share Our Strength and Foster Grandparents. Storytellers include people like Nelson Mandela, Steven Spielberg and former President Jimmy Carter.

Stone Soup for the World features a foreword by Jack Canfield (co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series) and an introduction by General Colin Powell, Chairman of America's Promise, the community service initiative spawned by the Presidents' Summit for America's Future. The Presidents' Summit, held in April 1997, aimed to ignite a revival of civil society and volunteerism in America, especially on behalf of children.

Stone Soup for the World was an ambitious undertaking for Marianne, who hasn't always made her living in the book business. For the last 20 years, she worked as a consultant in public/private partnerships in the health field. "In the beginning of each new project, I would ask the same question: What will it take for you to get others more involved in your community?" Larned told stories of other communities working together to enrich the lives of all their members. But too often, the materials didn't inspire people. "We needed a common language that a CEO, a school teacher, and a kid would be able to read."

While consulting, Larned made kids in the community a high priority. "I'd interview kids and ask the same questions as I'd ask the mayor," Larned says. But she soon discovered a disturbing trend about adult attitudes: "Kids really cared about helping others, but they didn't think adults cared about them." Kids complained that adults?particularly those other than their parents?too often dismissed them, blaming them for crime and problems in the neighborhood. "Adults were concerned that kids were leaving the community when they grew up, but it's no wonder," Larned says. "Kids didn't feel valued."

With the next millennium drawing closer, Larned began to ask herself, "What kind of world are we leaving for our children? Are we teaching them by our actions, as well as our words? We need to educate children about the great leaders who dedicated their lives to making the world a better place, give children opportunities to serve and make a difference in the lives of others."

Her belief in children as our future inspired Larned to publish Stone Soup for the World at a sixth grade reading level. "This book is for kids to read and be part of the story," she says. Larned's experiences consulting in the health field confirmed her belief that people young and old want to create a better world, but often feel disconnected. Often, she thought of a folktale her mother had told her as a child. In the Stone Soup story, a hungry traveler comes upon a small village in search of a shared meal. Eventually, every member of the community finds something to contribute. The soup they create together becomes enough to feed the whole village. "When we each give something," Larned says, "we can feed the hungry of the world and the hunger in our souls."

After the death of her youngest brother Christopher at 19, Larned took some time to contemplate her next career move. Christopher, one-time captain of his high school football team, had overcome a bout with drugs and alcohol and later challenged his teammates to do the same. His short but passionate life was punctuated by efforts to give back to others? which, according to Marianne, "brought more meaning, purpose, and fulfillment to him." Christopher's death inspired Marianne to gather the courage to help young people discover the gift of giving.

Strengthened by her new commitment, Larned invited friends and colleagues from around the world to submit stories about people who'd made a difference. She then selected 100 stories of real people working to help others for her proposed collection? Stone Soup for the World.

Organizational and corporate partners are ivited to collaborate with the Stone Soup Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering youth to become leaders in building a better world. Partners will help Stone Soup for the World reach the 10 million young people in America by engaging them in projects to bring people together in their communities. A Stone Soup for the World Web site offers information on the course of events. Larned hopes that National Volunteer Week will be a time to channel our collective resources, organize our business skills, and rally the best and the brightest to support what is working in the world.

Stone Soup for the World is available in bookstores everywhere, or by calling 800-685-9595; trade paperback original $15.95.  Stone Soup Foundation. Contact: Marianne Larned, P.O. Box 4301, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568. 508-696-8514.