It Does Matter
By Nayyer Ali, MD

Is it possible for one person to do anything significant in a world of six billion? I’m not talking about the Al Gores and the Bill Gates and the Boris Yeltsins of the world, but how about the rest of us? Does anything we do really matter?

I got a surprising answer to that question when I took my three-year-old daughter to a child’s first birthday party. The party was on a warm summer day in Southern California, and we spent some time in the pool together, which my daughter had to be assured had no fish. We enjoyed a piece of birthday cake in honor of Sophia, whose father Martin I have known since we were in the 3rd grade. It was one of those perfectly pleasant days that convince Southern Californians that they are living in God’s country.

I spent a few moments talking to Lisa, Sophia’s mother, about how hard it is now for her with three little children and Martin taking night classes to get an MBA. Somehow we got to talking about what Martin would really like to do if he could be free to choose his course. Lisa surprised me by saying that Martin really wants to go back to Africa.

Martin and Lisa, before they had their first child, spent a month in Malawi on a project of building wells for a group of villages. Although we rarely discuss religion, they are obviously a deeply religious family and went to Malawi as an expression of their religious values.

Malawi is a small country in East Africa that has a mixed Christian-Muslim population. Like most countries in that part of the world, poverty is the general rule, and life is lived hand to mouth in agricultural villages. Martin is a geologist, and he had grandiose plans of all that he would accomplish in a month in Malawi.

Well, Martin and Lisa faced the usual frustration that one experiences when attempting to accomplish something in a Third World country. No one else locally seemed to share their sense of urgency or exuberance for the task. Vital parts and equipment were delayed or could not be found. They spent many days doing nothing as a result. Martin watched his grandiose plans go down the drain. Towards the end of their stay, enough material and equipment had been gathered and Martin could make a go at it. In the limited time, he was able to sink one deep well and get it operational. With that done, and time having run out, they returned to the United States.

I had heard this story at that time and that made we wonder why Lisa would say that Martin would want to repeat the experience. I can remember Martin’s sense of frustration when he related the tale of his trip after coming back from Malawi. To go halfway across the world to sink one well seemed like a sheer waste of time. So I asked Lisa why Martin would want to waste his time once again.

What Lisa told me surprised me, and made me realize how important an individual’s actions can be. It turned out that three years after Martin and Lisa’s Malawi journey, the region they had stayed in was hit by a severe drought. All the wells serving 6,000 people dried up. All the wells but one, that is. Martin’s deep well kept working all through the drought and was the primary source of water supply for several thousand.

As I drove home with my daughter I realized how lucky I was to live in a place where my daughter could splash around in a pool in the middle of a desert, and how important water is to those who have none. I also thought again that we should make sure to do something in our lives that really matters. As God says in the Quran, “Your wealth and your children are but illusions, the only thing that matters are the good deeds that you do.”

There are all sorts of unmet needs all over the world and in our own local communities. Each of us should try to help the other to the greatest extent possible. Do not give in to the idea that one man’s efforts are of no consequence. What each one of us does, or fails to do, matters, and matters a great deal. Comments can reach me at Nali@socal.rr.com.