Brookings pastor Kline: The death of a comrade in Gandhian nonviolence inspires thoughts of sadness and joy
Ten minutes ago I learned of the death of a friend. He had been struggling with cancer for four years, and winning. It wasn’t keeping him from hiking and sailing and singing. He did all those things until the last days.
He was a resister! He not only battled the cancer, but he fought with the systems of violence so embedded in our culture and the larger human community. His life of non-violent protest led him to jail, and to helping create the Nonviolent Peace Force, an organization in operation around the globe, accompanying the threatened in situations of violence.
He and I were together in India and Sri Lanka some years ago, trying to learn more about Gandhian nonviolence and ways of peacemaking, and making contact with those expressing it in their own situations. He was a mentor and companion for my own journey in nonviolence.
There is sadness in his passing. But there is also joy! We can always be happy and grateful when we watch a great soul depart for the Spirit World, leaving a history of good work behind. And I’m especially grateful at this moment, as I begin to write my weekly column. I was about to start by apologizing to my readers, that given our present situation, I was forced to reflect on the bad news of the day again; since with our new, two-month-old administration, only sad news of disease and death are the daily fare.
But the good news is, we have resisters! The good news is, we have people putting their lives on the line for others! The good news is, we still have communities of welcome and people of compassion! The good news is, we can still celebrate diversity and welcome people different from us! The good news is, we still have libraries and librarians protecting our right to read what we wish! The good news is, the courts are still functioning, even as judges are threatened and new court cases await trial! The good news is, Congress hasn’t yet been shut down, even though it is democratically dysfunctional!
The good news is, town halls are packed with concerned citizens and the cowardly and purchased in Congress are being identified! The good news is, the great majority of our people reject authoritarianism and the rule of unelected billionaires!
I also have my own personal good news this morning! I’m five days past a hospital visit where I had a heart valve replaced. Hospitals and surgery can be troubling, even frightening. But my recent experience has led me to some conclusions about help in difficult times and challenging situations. Those conclusions have application to our national circumstances as well as my personal one.
There is the possibility of family support and the support of friends! It gets expressed verbally and more intimately, with hugs and kisses. Whether in the hospital or on the way to jail for nonviolent actions, family support can be crucial and heartening.
There is laughter, a wonderful medicine for the human spirit! There were numerous opportunities for robust laughter in my short hospital experience, especially with one of the doctors who spread that “medicine” over us all. At the same time, cartoons are flooding the internet on governmental and Presidential themes. Sometimes it’s healthier to laugh than cry.
There are caretakers! In my short stay I found myself focusing on my caretakers more than on my own condition. They were an exceptional crew. One in particular I saw for the first time as she kneeled next to my bed, only her smiling face visible, telling me she would return later as my sleepiness faded.
On another occasion, she was kneeling next to me with medication as I sat in a chair, declining my suggestion I change position so she could stand. We can kneel for each other in our national as well as our personal life.
There is always nature in all its variety! Even from a hospital bed, one can often see the colors change in the sky, the clouds float by, the birds singing in the trees. A walk in the world a day, like with my recently deceased friend, keeps the resistance strong to the ways of death, and a life-giving spirit intact.
Then there is meditation, what I understand as listening prayer! Focusing on your breathing and slowly releasing all the troubled clutter of the mind, we find that the body relaxes and the Spirit has an opportunity to come alive. What better way to calm the troubles and anxieties of the day and then face them with new resolve.
Whether it’s a personal or social challenge, the above are aids. May they enable us to face the issues of the day, and like my departed friend, help us resist the forces that would make us complicit and heartless in our national life!
Carl Kline of Brookings is a United Church of Christ clergyman and adjunct faculty member at the Mt. Marty College campus in Watertown. He is a founder and on the planning committee of the Brookings Interfaith Council, co-founder of Nonviolent Alternatives, a small not-for-profit that, for 15 years, provided intercultural experiences with Lakota/Dakota people in the Northern Plains and brought conflict resolution and peer mediation programs to schools around the region. He was one of the early participants in the development of Peace Brigades International. Kline can be reached at carl@satyagrahainstitute.org. This column originally appeared in the Brookings Register.
Photo: public domain, wikimedia commons
