The Moment of Lift

The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World by Melinda Gates
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Towards the end of graduate school, I got in my head that I wanted to work for the Gates Foundation in Seattle. I set up a meeting with a contact, who at the time oversaw the global philanthropic efforts of the Foundation, and thought I could, at least, get an internship that eventually could turn into employment. While the contact was glad to offer career advice and look at my resume, he explained that there was no place for me at the Gates Foundation. They did not hire newbies. They hired the best of the best - people who were at least ten or fifteen years into their already distinguished careers. What stuck with me though were his comments about how if he didn't do his job well, people died. If he did do his job well, people still died, but at least there would be more that lived. The weight and magnitude of his and the Foundation's work hit me hard as I realized again how desperate so many people's lives were.

Fast forward nearly nine years and enter this amazing book. Gates' book caught me by surprise because she articulated so clearly how many ways there were to start improving lives around the globe. It is the people who do not seek power who are often the most qualified to lead. I'd vote for Melinda Gates for a high political office in a heartbeat. I still feel a bit at a loss for how to contribute to making the world better when the stakes are so high and the losses so great, but I feel more empowered than I did before. It's small things in and around each community that are a start towards lifting others and finding more humanity in each other. And as she so deftly describes, it is well worth the effort.

Happy reading and happy lifting--

(Book 108 - 2019)