To take it easy but ... to face it clearly ...

To take it easy ...

It takes years to learn that we are all shades of gray, and to learn to take oneself lightly, and to keep on keeping on. When I used to embark on my self depreciating moods, Naren used to tell me I had a big ego. I understand today that to take one's failings too seriously is also to be egotistic.

People worry that Gandhi was not Gandhian enough, or that Vinoba was not perfect. The ideas and ideals are more important than the person, who will have some weaknesses that human fleah is heir to.  The benchmarks they define for us and for thmselves are what matter. Human beings are imperfect, and lifetimes are needed to strive towards perfection that we get a glimpse of in rare moments of revelation ...

 ... but to face it clearly
 

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A friend wrote offendedly that because I write of the collective guilt in us 'affluent', many givers stop giving. That is actually not my call. The village people never ask. I simply table the realities and needs as i see them. To give is to be blessed. To have the opportunity to give is to be blessed. That is all.

And of course we the affluent are guilty. For our indulgences when elsewhere there is malnourishment. Our overconsumption and thoughtless consumption pattern is the cause of the breakdown. If we do not wear handloom when handloom weavers are starving, we are answerable. If we buy branded products, when small producers are starving, we are answerable.

Leo Tolstoy, ""I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means -- except by getting off his back. .." !!!Top of Form