Trying to Make the World a Little Better

Alex and Brian are a very special couple. Alex is a teacher and Brian works for a health-related non-profit. They are both not only devoted to helping people, but are really positive people too. Here are the remarks I shared with them and their guests at Old Red in Dallas, Texas this last Sunday:

Capitalism, to paraphrase Churchill, is the worst economic system, except for all of the rest of them. Still the financial crisis has taken the bloom just a little bit off of the rose. It is in this context that we understand how much we should admire people like Alex and Brian, who have devoted their professional lives to a higher calling than capital in the non-profit world. They spend their every working day, just trying to make the world a little better. Heck, they even decided to celebrate the best day of their lives, today, at Old Red, a non-profit!

Not surprisingly, one of the most important dimensions of their mutual relationship is how they themselves feel they are better individuals because they have each other. Indeed, Brian says "I am a very lucky man to have met her and I’m even luckier that she fell in love with me." Alex says it in a similar vein, "Brian challenges me and pushes me to be a better version of myself."

It is this very approach towards bettering the world and themselves that causes Brian to reflect about Alex, in words that in my eyes really epitomize them both, "I think she puts so much positive energy into the world that it leaves everyone she encounters with positive ions buzzing around her."

Thank you, Alex and Brian, for setting such a great example for how to make the world a much better place. May you continue to serve as an inspiration for the rest of us.