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God Has a Dream
Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1984, retired as Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, in 1996. President Nelson Mandela then named him as Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the organization charged with bringing to light the crimes against humanity in South Africa under apartheid. The goal was to achieve reconciliation between those who were suffered and their oppressors. Still active as a lecturer throughout the world, Tutu was most recently a visiting scholar-in-residence at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. In this inspiring volume written with Douglas Abrams, he sums up the ideas and beliefs that have served as the foundation of his sermons, speeches, and writings. He sees it as "a cumulative expression of my life's work."
Addressing the fear, anger, insecurity, and vulnerability that many people around the world are feeling, the author proclaims that God is present in our lives and does not ignore us when we are experiencing helplessness or hopelessness. What is the source of this assurance? Tutu responds: "Many of us can acknowledge that God cares about the world but can't imagine that God would care about you or me individually. But our God marvelously, miraculously cares about each and every one of us. The Bible has this incredible image of you, of me, of all of us, each one, held as something precious, fragile in the palms of God's hands. And that you and I exist only because God is forever blowing God's breath into our being." The author also asks us to believe that for every act of evil that is emblazoned in today's headlines, there are a dozen acts of goodness that go unnoticed. But God takes note and is pleased when human beings reach out to each other in compassion, forgiveness, and generosity.
Speaking about his work as Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Tutu contends that God depends on us to be carriers of justice, healing, and wholeness in a world twisted and torn by hated, divisiveness, and violence. He refers to the African ideal of ubuntu, which acknowledges that our private well being is contingent on the health and happiness of those around us. Boldly, Tutu challenges us to see our suffering neighbors and even strangers as part of our family: "Would you let your brother's or sister's family, your relatives, eke out a miserable existence in poverty?" he asks. "Would you let them go hungry? And yet every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger and three-quarters of these are children under five. If we realized that we are family, we would not let this happen to our brothers and sisters."
The author's experiences in South Africa have been a sign for him that God can achieve wonders in the most desolate and chaotic places and among the most hateful individuals and groups. Whether talking about the rainbow people of God, embracing our enemies, or letting our suffering ennoble and not embitter us, Tutu affirms the goodness of creation and humanity's co-partnership with God in the ongoing task of making a better and more just world. He encourages us to throw ourselves unstintingly into acts of transformation by setting aside our personal ambitions and serving others. Desmond Tutu's eloquent and heart-felt writing will resurrect hope in your heart.
Sums up the ideas and beliefs that have served as the foundation of the South African archbishop's sermons, speeches and writings.
Wayne Muller, Legacy of the Heart
When we come to the moment of death, it is likely that a few simple questions will arise in our hearts: Did I love well? Was I generous and kind? Did I allow myself to be loved? How did I share that love with others?
When we come to the moment of death
Life Gets Better
Ultimately, you cannot save yourself without saving others.
Other-preservation is the first law of life.
— Martin Luther King Jr.
"We are fortunate when aging extricates us from an excessive focus on ourselves. More than anything else, losses in later life can awaken our sympathy and make us stay attuned to the importance of living in concert with others. An interest in serving broader aims may keep mounting — contributing to our local community, helping to ensure the health of natural areas in our vicinity — whatever we can do that connects us to the human prospect as a whole, even in a small way.
"Most of us become convinced that the spirit for a life well lived derives from what we give to others, not from what we amass for ourselves. During times when we have little influence over painful events in our own lives, we may still be encouraged by the effect we are able to have on others' circumstances. No matter what happens, we know that we can always do something for someone else.
"Antonio Luis Alves de Souza, a Brazilian drummer, was offered an expensive new car after his band recorded The Rhythm of the Saints. Paul Simon wanted to thank him for the excellence of his artistry, beyond what he had already been paid. Instead, Souza requested money enough to buy an old building where he could teach theater arts, singing, and dancing to poor children and women from the streets. Fifteen years later, when he died of a heart attack at the age of fifty-four, his funeral procession 'was followed by 4,000 people dancing and singing his songs.'
"In a cafe one afternoon, I overheard the wrap-up of a business meeting between a woman in her fifties and a man in his thirties. She said, 'So, I really like where we're going with this. I want to do something good for our community.' The younger man replied, 'That's great. I want to get paid.' They were clearly at divergent points in the life course, with different priorities. After an awkward pause, they parted politely.
"We naturally get caught up in making our way in the world during youth and middle age. There is little time or energy for endeavors beyond our personal sphere — maintaining a home, going to work, raising children. Two or three decades may elapse before we find these involvements less consuming. In the meantime, a longing for connection to something beyond these spheres slowly gains force.
"Later life is the time when we tend to have room in our lives for generosity. It gives us reasons to prevail over our personal difficulties and grants us access to vital sources of renewal. We find there is strength in doing what good we can for others, not as an intellectual construct but as a robust way of meeting each day."
Wendy Lustbader on older people having room in their lives for generosity.
Sa'di , Essential Sufism
A thief entered the house of a Sufi and found nothing there to steal. As he was leaving, the dervish, sensing his disappointment, threw him the blanket on which he had been lying.
A thief entered the house of a Sufi
Joan Halifax, The Fruitful Darkness
Steven Foster once said to me that loneliness is the teacher of giving. Aloneness teaches us how we are really connected to and interdepending with everything.
Loneliness is the teacher of giving
Lewis Richmond, Work as a Spiritual Practice
The antidotes to anger are, of course, kindness and generosity. Kindness exposes rather than protects the self. It calls out not "Me! Me! Me!" but "You! You! You!" Kindness ordinarily occurs when the self feels safe and secure. But it is possible to raise kindness even when the self feels endangered and exposed, even in the midst of anger.
The antidotes to anger are kindness and generosity
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The Heart of Islam
The whole tradition of adab, or traditional courtesy, manners, and comportment, plays a central role in making compassion, generosity, and the self-discipline and nobility that are inseparable from them a concrete reality.
Adab makes compassion and generosity a reality
Sheldon Kopp, Frederic Brussat's Twitter Collection
In the long run, we get no more than we are willing to risk giving.
We only get what we risk
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov , The Empty Chair
All beginnings require that you
Unlock new doors.
The key is giving and doing.
Give charity and do kindness.
The key is giving and doing
Lao Tzu, Frederic Brussat's Twitter Collection
Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.
Kindness creates confidence