In 2008, just as the recession struck America, Dafna Michaelson Jenet quit her job and overcame numerous obstacles to embark on a Journey with a capital J. She decided to visit 50 states in 52 weeks to interview average Americans dedicated to helping others. Lacking a specific agenda and losing some friends who thought she was nuts, Michaelson Jenet did it anyway.
It Takes a Little Crazy to Make a Difference (Motivational Press, 2015) epitomizes Mahatma Gandhis conviction that you must be the change you want to see in the world.
Through the people she met, the author changed beyond her wildest imaginings. Readers of this book may well discover a similar gift.
I had been talking to everyone I could for close to seven months about this Journey, writes Michaelson, who lives in Denver. I was saying that I was doing it because I felt Americans were spiraling down into an abyss of depression feeling a total lack of control.
I was certain that I could make a difference by changing the way we looked at ourselves. I was going to be the mirror that reflected who, I felt, we truly are as a society.
The book is written from a dual perspective: the people she encounters and their stories; and Michaelson Jenets inner transformation. Like a mentor and a protégé, they are mutually beneficial.
It Takes a Little Crazy to Make a Difference doesnt immediately start with the interviews. First we learn about Michaelson Jenets past and present, her love of family and intermittent hardships. Time and again, she asks herself whether shes crazy to even contemplate the journey.
Finally she reaches beyond her comfort level and boards the plane to Delaware, where she begins interviewing.
Michaelson Jenet does not merely document her subjects; she listens to their personal histories, motivations and hopes.
Marissa and Shoshanna, two Texas high school students who organized a cadre of volunteers to rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina; and 91-year-old Holocaust survivor Alfred Tibor, who now sculpts beautiful images despite his painful youth, are just three of the amazing individuals she met on the road.
Her interviews reflect this countrys diversity: women, men, adolescents, 60-year-olds, married couples, singles, Jews, Christians, Muslims, African Americans and Native Americans.
They taught her that age, gender, success, poverty and even tragedy are irrelevant. Now is all that matters and what you are willing to do to lift the spirits of strangers.
An eminently quotable book, It Takes a Little Crazy to Make a Difference makes it difficult to choose just one. But the following pertains to anyone whos afraid to change his or her world, and ours:
As you answer the whats in it for me for yourself and your community, take that first step and face-off with the demons that may try to derail you. Own them. Thank them for their service. Then set them free so you can achieve what you so desire.
Copyright © 2015 by the Intermountain Jewish News
