Hope In Time of Despair

Beginning with the first leg of my journey last Friday, I was greeted with a special securiy check at the airport and had my ticket stamped by TSA. I looked and felt different with my unique straw hat, my alpaca wool vest with llamas, and sandals, etc. The head steward asked me "when was I in Peru?" , as did the customs official in Toronto. Previews for the Gandhi trip!

The Conference was full of scholarly presentations about our world and Merton's insightful learning. Keynoter and former parliamentarian, Douglas Roche, inspired us with hope for a transformed world and steps in that direction with efforts like the "Alliance for Civilization." This, despite his sense that nation states are making nuclear weapons "permanent." Don Greyston opened his address with "We already know everything we need to know." With magnificent quotes from the inspired, he explicated each word of the quote. Healing the planet is the "supreme challenge of our times."

How deep into "reality" can we go? My workshop, "Activism without Delusion, attempted to plunge into the depths of reasons for despair: global climate change, war making and nuclear weapons, and the effects of peak oil. (I would have added species loss after my bus reading of the current Mother Jone's issue featuring that subject with a naked human in a glass jar on its cover.) How many of us can go to the ultimate reality and meaning of creation, of life? I wanted to, but only was able to point in that direction. Truth, reality, that which is: Gandhi's "sat". Merton amplifies on reality and I was loaded with his and other insights. I was not able to elaborate on his Zen question, "Where do you go from the top of a 32 foot pole?" Nonetheless, our ninety minutes together was dynamic with interactions and insights. A senior Indian woman asked me "Am I ready to die?" Death through mass killings also came into our discussions for analysis. At the end everyone gathered around me to give blessings for the UK American Gandhi journey. Don Greyston added the word "Bernieji" to his sendoff, a new twist on Gandhiji.