Wednesday, December 26, 2007

RESOLVING DIFFERENTLY

Well, Christmas is winding down, and we move towards Epiphany (the festival of unexpected grace) and New Year (the time of fresh starts). So I am grateful to Peter Challen for sending me this piece of wisdom. Apparently, a few weeks before he was assassinated, Gandhi had a conversation with his grandson, Arun. He handed him a talisman upon which were engraved the 'Seven Blunders' out of which, said Gandhi, grows the violence that plagues the world.

Wealth without work

Pleasure without conscience

Knowledge without character

Commerce without morality

Science without humanity

Worship without sacrifice

Politics without principles


Practical steps to inject even a little of the latter into the former would be a good move, he suggested. But what or who can produce the change of heart and mind involved? That is the question Epiphany begins to address to us.

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