"If one does what one can do to make the world a better place, that's all God will ask... it is a job that can make your life worth living, no matter what else happens. "
My father, Mario Cuomo, who passed away this year, shared his philosophy in a personal letter to his grandchildren on the occasion of the new millennium. On this Father's Day, we are reminded of his universal message of love and interconnection.
Our lives were blessed by his goodness, and now, his voice lives in our hearts.
~ Maria Cuomo Cole
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November, 1999
I'm writing this letter to you and all our other granddaughters. It will be a while before most of you are able to read these words and understand them, but what I want to tell you will be as true ten years from now as it is today and I want to be sure to write it all down while I have the opportunity.
Less than two months from now the world will celebrate the beginning of a new millennium. It's a good time to remind oneself how quickly the days and years pass, and to think about what we want to do with whatever time is left. One of the things I want to do is to share with you as much as I can of what I have learned along the way. That's why I'm writing you this letter.
God can do anything. God could have delivered the world to us as a perfectly finished product, but He chose not to. Instead, He made it a work that changes from moment-to-moment and day-to-day. In recent years the changes have been more rapid and dramatic. Every day there are exciting developments: new ways to learn things, to communicate with one another, to cure illnesses, to travel in space -- even new ways to give birth to human beings.
More-and-more people are using computers for fun and for business, and they're replaced by more advanced models even before you have mastered the old ones.
Altogether the years ahead will create a dazzling new world of endless opportunity for you. But it will be a world that demands high skills and if you don't have them you will fall behind.
You know how important education was to your grandparents. You've heard from us all the stories about how our parents came to America from other parts of the world with little or no formal education. How they worked day and night just to be sure their children would have the learning they themselves were denied. Because they did, we were able to educate ourselves, keep up with the changes of our times and provide ourselves--and your parents--with a reasonably comfortable life.
The changes that lie ahead for you, will be more rapid and more substantial, making your need for education even greater than ours was. My advice is that you start early, work hard at learning everything you can, and never stop. Knowledge is power and with that power you will be able to earn a good living, have a nice place to live, enjoy the finest music, art, literature, and gather much that the world has to offer.
But now let me tell you the most important thing I know.
It may take more than all those material things for you to have a really satisfying life. At some point, you will probably find that filling your own basket with goodies, satisfying your own wants and desires for personal comfort, will not be enough to make you truly happy. Chances are you will discover that to be fulfilled you will have to lean on some fundamental belief, some basic purpose in life that gives you a sense of meaningfulness and significance and that answers the question: Why were we born in the first place? Without an answer, all the accumulating of material goods can become nothing more than a frantic fidgeting, a frenetic attempt to fill the space between birth and eternity.
It happens to a lot of people who spend their whole life so involved with the challenge of just staying alive in some decent condition, that they don't get to think much about why they were born in the first place. Others get past the struggle then wander aimlessly as they approach the end, satisfying whatever appetites are left until there are no more appetites, or no strength to feed them. They look for answers in the world around them, in the words of wiser people, in the leadership of some heroic figure. But the answers prove elusive, no Moses comes to them, and they die without ever having an answer. Don't let it happen to you.
You don't need another Moses. I think there is an idea that can give you all the direction you need; an idea simple enough for everyone to understand, sensible enough for everyone to accept, sweet enough to inspire us. It's the idea that is the basis of the Judeo-Christian tradition that helped give birth to America and that helps sustain our nation to this day. It began with the Jewish people about four thousand years ago, who described it in two Hebrew principles - Tzedakah and Tikkun Olam. Tzedakah means that all of us, wherever we're born, whatever our color or accent, are children of one God, brothers and sisters who owe one another respect and dignity. And the second principle, Tikkun Olam, tells us we should find ways to come together in order to repair the universe, to make it stronger and sweeter. The Christians borrowed both principles. The first we call charity: the obligation to love one another. And the second teaches us, as it taught the Jews, that God made the world but did not finish it; that He left the world to us so that we could, side-by-side and working together, collaborate in completing the work of Creation by making this world as good as it can possibly be.
Because God knows how grand the world is and how small we are, He is not going to expect any miracles from you. All He asks is that you do what you can. If you rise to great power and are able to end a war, or find a cure for cancer... wonderful. But if the best you can do is comfort a single soul in need of simple friendship... well, that's wonderful too.
If one does what one can to make things better, that's all God will ask. It's a job you can work at every minute that you live and it's a job that can make your life worth living... no matter what else happens.