How is the world transformed by your presence?

If you had to name a way in which the world has been transformed by your presence, what would it be?

This was a question asked on a blog that I follow this morning. It is asked in the context of the month of Ellul in the hebrew calender which is a month of self contemplation preceding the month of Tishrei which celebrates the birth of the New Year, the creation of the universe and all its inhabitants.It is a difficult question to answer in what way the world has been transformed by my presence. I thought about it for a while, and in the meandering nature of thoughts in the mind, I remembered a recent phone conversation that I had with my father. My father left when I was very young and I did not see much of him in childhood or my adult life . He did not participate in teaching me or guiding me through the trials ,tribulations ,milestones, and joys of being or becoming a person. When I have had conversations or small visits with him ,he has usually been unduly harsh and critical, when he has really put no effort into "baking the bread"(me,being the bread).
In this recent conversation with my father,he reminded me of his mantra of survival of the fitness, that I should not be drawn into helping those seemingly in need ,frail or weak , who are only manipulating because after all, when push comes to shove everyone finds a way to survive no matter what,each to the level of his survival ability. Of course, this is his mantra as when he left me as a child, I being the oldest was left to carry on the tasks that he never wanted to take on. Yes, this has made me stronger,independent, but the child inside of me is always seeking guidance. It is true that we are genetically programmed for survival, but there are tricks of the trade in survival that a parent ideally attempts to teach one's child as I have to mine and continue to,as best as I can, even in their adult life. A parent's job is never completely done. So the conversation went as usual, chastising me for not following a path that assumes that somehow we are all equally programmed and endowed for perfect survival even without any training. My father is big on the mantra,"give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach him to fish and he will eat everyday'" Dad, you never gave me a fish ,nor did you teach me to fish. Luckily. others have replaced you and have taught me to fish well and I can teach that skill well now. Teaching one to fish requires patience,the need to hang around and repeat the gestures thousands of time with new nuances and subtleties. Teaching to fish involves lots of mistakes and trying again. Teaching to fish means there may be days that you are ill and weak and someone kind fishes for you and you will return that kindness in turn. That to me is how the world is transformed by my presence,that despite the lack of your example, your harshness, your miserliness, your cowardice, i have spent my life not emulating you, but everyday look for role models to teach me the paths of generosity,compassion and love that you could not and will not. The world can be transformed by my vigilant observations and actions to not neglect the weak, the ill, the suffering,and to patiently hang around, get a little dirty.give some of myself,because if others in the world suffer less by my actions, i too suffer less, in fact i feel joy and purpose ...