Story of the Lazy Giraffe

There was once a lazy giraffe.

He didn't like having to stretch his long neck to reach up to the high, hard to eat leaves. He preferred to sit on the grass underneath the trees and eat the leaves from the bottom branches. He was well capable of standing but he couldn't be bothered, it wasn't worth the effort.

The lazy giraffe was pretty happy with his lot. Day after day he sat around eating the low hanging leaves, life was good.

Then one day another giraffe came along.

A much younger giraffe.

A much shorter giraffe.

He'd been walking all day and he was starving. He'd seen the trees in the distance and had rushed towards them looking forward to a good hearty feed.

But

When he got to the first tree he noticed that there were no leaves that he could reach. All the lower branches had been stripped bare. He ran from tree to tree hoping to find some easy to reach leaves but there weren't any.

The older, lazier giraffe had eaten them all.

The young giraffe,

grew disheartened,

gave up

and went away.

Hungry.
.....

My point is this.

Sometimes it's easy to reach the low hanging fruit, to take the easy road and to accept the status quo.

It's easy to say something is too hard to achieve before we even try.

We all have dreams.

We all wish things were different, or better but most of us shrug our shoulders and just say 'it will never change', 'nobody's bothered' and 'there's nothing we can do.'

But that's all crap.

Every change or improvement that's ever been made in our society has come people who thought different.

They 'had a go'

'took a chance'

'refused not to try.

Margaret Mead said “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” 

Today Laura Ryder (@laurajryder) profiles ACT for Meningitis who will be taking part in Charity Hack on the 10th August.

The story of ACT is one of tragedy, of loss and of refusal to accept that that's the way things are going to stay.

Children like Aoibhe Carroll die every year from Meningitis, often because people didn't recognize the signs of the illness.

ACT for Meningitis are determined to make sure everybody knows the signs so no other family has to suffer.

They want to make  things better.

Some leaves are incredibly hard to reach but if we try....

You can read Laura's profile of ACT for Meningitis here