Shared Vision or Shared Cliches? LO26752

From: ACampnona@aol.com
Date: 06/02/01


Replying to LO26749 --

At de lange writes,

"When you again will be invited to a function yourself while it is insisted
that you would have to dress formally, think whether you will have the
guts to attend it, dressed perfectly, except for feet bare naked. If you
have the guts, perhaps you will have the guts to challenge the "imperial
positioning" in the many walks of our life.
With care and best wishes "

Dear At,

I have, as you might know become unsubscribed from this list. This means
nothing to me except that I have in future to come to it and not wait for
it to come to me. I prefer this way because it fits better, more
artistically, into the paradigm I see emerging. I see pictures in frames
upon endless walls again and I can flit 'hither and yon' like some crazed
butterfly dispensing my easy appendages of 'love' willy-nilly;-) at each
ending commencing to some 'strange other' as it does.

Wholes in my shoes suffices this fool...they have to look to see.

"Gandhi was wearing at the time a high silk top hat burnished bright, a
stiff and starched collar (known as a Gladstonian), a rather flashy tie
displaying all the colours of the rainbow, under which there was a fine
striped silk shirt. He wore as his outer clothes a morning coat, a double
breasted waistcoat, and striped trousers to match, an not only patent
leather shoes but spats over them. He also carried leather gloves and
silver mounted stick, but wore no spectacles. His clothes were regarded as
the very acme of fashion for young men about town at that time..." This
however was not enough, " He therefore directed his attention to other
qualities that went to making an English gentleman. He decided it was
necessary for him to take dancing classes, French and English elocution,
he also learned to play the violin (unsuccessfully) in order to cultivate
a musical ear..." -Then this man, after mixing with eccentrics of a
variety of kinds read Arnold's lines translating the Bhagavad Gita, "- If
one ponders on objects of the sense, there springs attraction; from
attraction grows desire, desire flames to fiercer passion, passion breeds
recklessness, then the memory - all betrayed - lets noble purposes go, and
saps the mind, till purpose, mind and man are all undone."

And changefulness being at oneness with greatness a better becoming became
this man...

Now in South Africa he was fighting for the rights of the Asians
there..."The Indian controversy (resistance) was now (1914) overtaken by a
conflict that Smuts considered far more serious than that which Mr. G had
brought him..." A strike by white workers which could bring all the
railroads to a standstill, if the Asians took advantage it spelt great
trouble for South Africa...but Gandhi undertook not to take advantage and
said that the 'Passive Resistance' movement would be suspended for the
duration of the strike... One of Smut's secretaries said about this, " I
do not like your people, and do not care to assist them at all. But what
am I to do? You help us in our days of need. How can we lay hands upon
you? I often wish you took to violence like the British strikers, and then
we would know how to dispose of you. But you will not injure even the
enemy. You desire victory by self-suffering along and never transgress
your self-imposed limit of courtesy and chivalry. And that is what reduces
us to sheer helplessness."

It was about this time that his great future friend Andrews met him for
the first time He asked an aide to point Gandhi out as he disembarked, "
He pointed to an ascetic figure with head shaven, dressed in a white dhoti
and kurta of such course material as indentured labourers might wear,
looking as though he were in mourning...on seeing him Andrew's...stooped
at once instinctively, and touched his feet in the traditional Hindu act
of reverence and he (Gandhi) said in a low tone - Pray do not do that, it
is a humiliation to me."

Gandhi did much good work and suffered greatly in South Africa...he faced
his greatest weakness as he saw it during this time, his "evil---strain of
cruelty to others..." He eventually departed having outmaneuvered Smuts
who wrote of him upon his departure, " The saint has left our shores, I
sincerely hope for ever."

Later, in 1939 when invited to reflect upon those times Smuts wrote better
of it..." It was my fate to be an antagonist of a man for whom even then I
had the highest respect. He never forgot the human background of the
situation, never lost his temper or succumbed to hate, and preserved his
gentle humour even in the most trying circumstances. I must admit that his
activities at the time were most trying to me. While I with other leaders
in South Africa was busily engaged on the task of welding the colonies
together into a unified state which was colossal work that took every
moment of my time...suddenly in the midst of all this engrossing work
Gandhi raised a most troublesome issue. We had a skeleton in the
cupboard... He method was deliberately to break the law, and to organise
his followers into a mass movement of passive resistance in disobedience
to the law objected to...many Indian had to be imprisoned and Gandhi
himself received - what no doubt he himself desired, a period in gaol. For
him everything went according to plan. Nor was the personal touch
wanting, for nothing to Gandhi's procedure lacked the peculiar personal
touch. While in gaol he had prepared for me a very useful pair of sandals,
which he presented to me when he was set free! I have worn those sandals
for many a summer since then, even though I may feel I am not worthy to
stand in the shoes of so great a man."

I know how much you will love those words At.

"- Persons in power should be very careful how they deal with a man who
cares nothing for sensual pleasures, nothing for riches, nothing for
comfort or praise or promotion, but is simply determined to do what he
believes to be right. He is a dangerous and uncomfortable enemy, because
his body, which you can always conquer, gives you so little purchase on
his soul."
  Prof. Gilbert Murray, Oxford University

As he turned his own ocean corner for India he found fear again and
reflected at his folly, " Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,
lead Thou me on."

That did, that does and that always will.

Love to you and all your many rainbow children, and especially those for
whom to wear no shoes in city frost in an adventure, something like
walking with stars on the souls of her shoes;-)

Andrew

Andrew Campbell
Oxford

-- 

ACampnona@aol.com

Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>


"Learning-org" and the format of our message identifiers (LO1234, etc.) are trademarks of Richard Karash.