Possibility

When the Norwegian Nobel Committee bestowed the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on President Barack Obama last week, it seems the prevailing opinion across the United States was confusion. Then, predictably, that turned into a million other feelings, provoking sometimes-furious debates about prematurity and worthiness.

The Committee’s official statement said that Obama was honored because of his “"extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." It acknowledged how he had captured the world’s attention and imagination to inspire hope.

I think there’s one word to sum up why Obama was chosen: possibility. And I believe that, in the results-oriented world we live in, possibility is often overlooked.

There is power in possibility. Every day on a less public stage, in some of the world’s most isolated and neglected places, that’s what my Mercy Corps colleagues are acknowledging. In many of those places – where earthquakes have toppled houses or war has forced families into exile, where everything has been lost or taken – possibility is the only thing left.

I don’t think you can have hope without possibility. There must be the possibility of a change for the better, a possibility to recover and rebuild. Give a book to a child, a loan to a struggling mother or a peaceful handshake to a former adversary and there is possibility. It is often passed on, transforming communities and changing the world a little at a time.

Hope keeps people going, but possibility gets them started.