Nipun, I enjoyed your article today. It reminded me of how, in their later years, Mother Theresa and John D. Rockefeller looked very much alike, with deep lines in their weathered faces. The difference was that JDR's eyes were the eyes of a dead man: the richest man on earth had eyes with no life or vitality, only cold calculation. MT's eyes were alive and engaging, even tho she'd seen enough human suffering to drive anyone else mad. Who died richer?
Where I would give a tip of the hat to Gates, tho, is that he is looking for root causes of poverty, while MT would never touch that area. She would treat the poor, but never concerned herself with the structural causes of poverty.
And a final thought, the irony and the tragedy of so many institutional religions is that while the founders taught the law of love, in time the institutions are often taken over by lawyers and bureaucrats who practice a love of the law.
1 REPLY
AlanBFeb 20, 2013
When someone is making a "must read" list we are far beyond the day when it is acceptable to call this merely an oversight. It calls into question whether the author of the list is sufficiently affirmative in his/her own reading choices. If one's own reading is more inclusive of diverse voices, then the lists one creates will reflect that naturally.
ORIGINAL COMMENT
Nipun, I enjoyed your article today. It reminded me of how, in their later years, Mother Theresa and John D. Rockefeller looked very much alike, with deep lines in their weathered faces. The difference was that JDR's eyes were the eyes of a dead man: the richest man on earth had eyes with no life or vitality, only cold calculation. MT's eyes were alive and engaging, even tho she'd seen enough human suffering to drive anyone else mad. Who died richer?
Where I would give a tip of the hat to Gates, tho, is that he is looking for root causes of poverty, while MT would never touch that area. She would treat the poor, but never concerned herself with the structural causes of poverty.
And a final thought, the irony and the tragedy of so many institutional religions is that while the founders taught the law of love, in time the institutions are often taken over by lawyers and bureaucrats who practice a love of the law.
1 REPLY
When someone is making a "must read" list we are far beyond the day when it is acceptable to call this merely an oversight. It calls into question whether the author of the list is sufficiently affirmative in his/her own reading choices. If one's own reading is more inclusive of diverse voices, then the lists one creates will reflect that naturally.