Parents, Priests, and Generals employ a definable, repeatable method to develop in people the virtue that puts others ahead of self. We can learn from them as each of us fills that same role in the lives, systems, and institutions we inhabit.

Real and long-lasting change in the world is tantamount to developing in people the virtue that puts others ahead of self. This is the fulcrum – we are able to value others insofar as we define ourselves relative to something greater than ourselves.

We do it every day in all our walks of life. Business people, doctors, teachers, artists; with our policies, our priorities, the metrics we use, the stories we tell. We are all, and always, influencing those around us toward a relative value for self or others.

We can change the world. We can right Injustices. We can listen to what our patients are saying with their stories, root out and heal their ailments while helping them see the fullness of life beyond their own. We can create businesses that will outlast themselves through their employees, suppliers, customers and community. We can nurture that damaged and fearful child to a life full of confidence and joy. We can teach our students to share simply because their classmate is valuable regardless of the favor he might or might not return. We can win Martin Luther King’s double-victory over our oppressors. We can lead our parishioners toward intimacy with one another and God. We can write stories and make sculptures that inspire us to be our best selves. We can be diligent and disciplined in our commitments to value others even ahead of ourselves. However, sooner or later we will reach our pain threshold and we will realize like Job, that we are “of small account.” Without some of Joe Mukanwa’s “spirit,” whatever we do to change the world will be a childish and mostly futile exercise in painting by numbers.