Humility

I read this beautiful piece of writing in Uncommon Gratitude by Joan Chittister:

“Rosa Parks died quite recently, the black woman who refused to give up her seat all those years ago on a bus in Alabama: the incident that really sparked the final and greatest phase of the civil rights movement. She was a humble person, even dare we say it, a good sinner. She knew that she was caught up in a system of unreality, not by her fault or choice; she knew that she ought to be asking a question about it; she knew that there was, all of a sudden, a choice about whether she would let daily absurdity and injustice go unchallenged. And she was too tired to argue with her intuitions. She took her responsibility because, as a good sinner, she knew that whatever in her life was marked by a selfishness or idleness she could change if she wanted was somehow connected with the evil of the world around—and that therefore there was a possibility, an extraordinary possibility, of acting as if that evil was not the last word. If she could decide about something no one expected her to decide about, what might become possible for others? She didn’t know, and I don’t for a moment imagine that all this sort of thing went consciously through her head—but she acted as if the world was bigger than she or her society had thought.”

Two thoughts catch my attention there – That the thought that evil is not the last word, and the thought that I can change myself, we can change the world, by acting as if the world is bigger than I/we had thought.