Translating from Knowing to Doing

Social Change

Last week I began to really think about the distance between our “knowing” of community health nutrition and actually translating that to actions that will lead to desirable changes. One thing I can definitely conclude is that the gap is huge. I guess the social economic gap isn’t the only distance we need to pave.
Malcolm Gladwell’s speech regarding social change was an inspiring piece to me. In fact, it evoked so much in me that I thought it deserved another week’s spotlight on this blog. After this week’s discussion on building healthy communities through social change, it has further reinstated my belief that awareness itself is not enough, but at the same time, absolutely necessary.
When I first heard Gladwell’s speech, I was sceptical for a while about whether or not awareness was as useful as the amount of investment required suggests. But a very important person in my life gave me one simple, but surprisingly moving example to wash my scepticism. The story began with a big wave that washed up thousands of starfish onto a beach. The starfish began dying on the beach, and one single little girl began picking them up one by one, and throwing each back into the ocean. She did this for hours, and still it seemed the same thousands of starfish remained on the beach. At this time, a man jogging on the beach passes by the little girl, and asks what she’s doing. She replies by telling him that the starfish are dying, so she’s trying to save them by picking up each one and throwing them back in the ocean. The man laughs, and tells the girl that she would never be able to save them all, as there were simply too many. The little girl was not discouraged; she smiled and told the man that she knew she couldn’t save them all, but she would not stop trying, and each one she manages to throw back into the ocean would be one life saved. The man continued running, a little ways down the beach, he stops, picks up a starfish, and throws it back into the ocean.
The way I interpreted this story is similar to how I perceive social change must occur. We cannot satisfy everybody, and sometimes our actions may not be agreed by and acknowledged by everybody. However, sometimes it isn’t about how many people you yourself can directly help; it is also about inspiring other people to do the same. Similar to what Kingwell said on the same night; sometimes change begins with inspiring others to be empathetic.
My question now is about creating healthy communities. We discussed in lecture that difference can be seen most on a local level, but do these small changes always lead to our goal of making Canada a healthier country?