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A movement’s success is signaled by a slow accretion of small changes in the system of institutional rewards and punishments by which all societies exercise social control. Qualities, commitments, and actions for which people in an earlier era were unjustly punished begin to become sources of reward in a process so gradual that it attracts little notice. . . .
In this fourth stage of a movement, there is an inward as well as an outward transformation, and it brings us back full circle to stage one. A movement gets under way as advocates realize that no punishment could possibly be greater than the one we lay on ourselves by conspiring in our own diminishment. In the final phase of a movement, advocates begin to understand that no reward could possibly be greater than the one we give ourselves by living our own truth “out loud” and in the light of day. (188–189)
Q. “Stones in the River” is a song about people who keep making their small contribution to a goal they care about, even though they may not see the final outcome, or even measurable short-term progress. Is there a stream of activity in your life where you have kept tossing “stones in the river”? If so, what has kept you at it? What are the rewards of living your life that way?
