"To the world you may be one person. But to that person, you may be the world."
Huh?
Someone wrote that phrase, which is a slogan used to raise money for a charitable organization.
If you read the quote slowly and carefully, you will realize that it makes no sense. It can stop you in your tracks — as it did for Don Christenson of Eagan, who was so puzzled that he sent it to me.
Who, he asked, is "that person"?
Here's the true meaning:
"To the world, you may be one person. But to a person you reach out to and help, you may be the world."
The true meaning got lost in the writer's act of compressing separate elements.