Desmund Tutu

Today, the archbishop had a reception with all of the students. Students were given the chance to pose questions. Public speaking is probably one of my greatest fears in life. It is just one of those essential skills that I really haven't developed yet, but I knew in my mind that if I didn't ask a question, I would never live it down for the rest of my life.

The only way I would survive is if I first wrote my question out so that I would feel comfortable when my turn came. I had no paper, but my friend Rob had a napkin, so I started jotting question ideas down. For some reason, I couldn't put words together that expressed exactly what I wanted to ask, but finally I had something down I was satisfied with.

Many of the previous questions had addressed issues of the past, so in mine I asked what issues were central in the mind of archbishop and what he hope to accomplish in regards to these issues. As I asked the question, my heart was racing like mad.

Archbishop Tutu responded by saying that what he was most concerned with was ridding the world of poverty and hunger. He felt the need to inspire us to work towards this cause, because to him, the idea of feeding the world was not a utopian ideal. He said that we as students should not lose our idealism and that if we focus on accomplishing these things, they will happen.

This man, a man who has stare adversity in the face and won, a man who has seen the conditions and tragedies of the world first hand, sincerely believes that we have the power in our lifetime to live in a world without hunger and poverty. His answer to this question, out of all the questions, received applause.

How can I walk away from something like that? How can you even begin to reconsider the balance between what is self-interest and what is for the good of others? Its a lot to handle.