Consider a line of dominoes. When one tile is removed from the line, the chain is broken. The momentum grinds to a halt. One minor adjustment to the line results in a major change. Individual acts do matter.

Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are agents of change. What we do affects the environment and others around us. Like giants walking through a miniature town, we are often too oblivious to the effects of our actions. Each one of us can have a profound, positive effect on the world.

In accepting that individual choices make a difference, we begin to see that we cannot be satisfied with the status quo. While it is true that without darkness you can’t even begin to understand the light, many countries in our world are still sheathed in unbearable darkness. Infrastructure matters. Our actions matter.

But the road to social change remains the road less traveled. Too often wealth, status and celebrity subvert a socially just and relevant heart. In the Pensees Pascal wrote: “Man’s sensitivity to the littlest things and insensitivity to the greatest things are marks of a very strange disorder.” Has darkness triumphed because we have a distorted focus, one that centres on our own success and getting there regardless of the costs to others? Are we walking the road less travelled, or are we merely traveling the road less and less?

Change is imminent. Change is on the horizon. We are the dominoes. We are falling gracefully, and we must trust in a long line of historical renewal that will not leave others behind.