Anthony De Mello writes of a man he’d met who reflected on his days – he entitles it
CHANGE THE WORLD BY CHANGING ME
“I was a revolutionary when I
was young and all my prayer to God was
‘Lord, give the energy to change the world.’
“As I approached middle age and realized
that half my life was gone without my
changing a single soul, I changed my
prayer to ‘Lord, give me the grace to
change all those who come in contact
with me. Just my family and friends,
and I shall be satisfied.’
“Now that I am an old man and my days
are numbered, my one prayer
is, ‘Lord, give me the grace to change
myself.’ If I had prayed for this right
from the start I should not have wasted
my life.”
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
When two plus two isn't ....
I'm not sure who I heard say it the other day, but it bears consideration with regard to the "occupy" movement ...
When you have a few people who know what they want (self-described anarchists) infiltrating a large group of followers who concede they don't know what they want and admit they are looking for leaders, it is an equation for trouble.
Change for the sake of change alone looks much like foolishness to those who are watching.
G.K. Chesterton writing in "Orthodoxy" (1908) observed,
It is true that a man (a silly man) might make change itself his object or ideal. But as an ideal, change becomes unchangeable. If the change-worshipper wishes to estimate his own progress, he must be sternly loyal to the idea of change; he must not begin to flirt gaily with the ideal of monotony. Progress itself cannot progress. It is worth remark, in passing, that when Tennyson, in a wild and rather weak manner, welcomed the idea of infinite alteration in society, he instinctively took a metaphor which suggests an imprisoned tedium. He wrote -
Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change.
He thought of change itself as an unchangeable groove; and so it is. Change is about the narrowest and hardest groove a man can get into.
Something to think about ...
When you have a few people who know what they want (self-described anarchists) infiltrating a large group of followers who concede they don't know what they want and admit they are looking for leaders, it is an equation for trouble.
Change for the sake of change alone looks much like foolishness to those who are watching.
G.K. Chesterton writing in "Orthodoxy" (1908) observed,
It is true that a man (a silly man) might make change itself his object or ideal. But as an ideal, change becomes unchangeable. If the change-worshipper wishes to estimate his own progress, he must be sternly loyal to the idea of change; he must not begin to flirt gaily with the ideal of monotony. Progress itself cannot progress. It is worth remark, in passing, that when Tennyson, in a wild and rather weak manner, welcomed the idea of infinite alteration in society, he instinctively took a metaphor which suggests an imprisoned tedium. He wrote -
Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change.
He thought of change itself as an unchangeable groove; and so it is. Change is about the narrowest and hardest groove a man can get into.
Something to think about ...
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