5/19/98, Jan Slakov wrote:
>Now he is home, going through the hundreds of messages that accumulated
>while he was gone and I am finally getting enough courage to write to you.
Jan - I am so happy to see your "voice" on the rn list! And many thanks
for taking the time to edit down my ramblings to you into something more
useful to others. As I recover from Geneva frenzy I too will be posting,
but _please now that you've found your "list voice" -- keep sharing your
thoughts and explorations with all of us in this way!
The quote attributed to Sergio's namesake:
"caminante, el camino se hace al caminar"
"Walker, the path is made as you walk" (??)
I find harmonious with a quote from Henry Volken:
"To understand reality, try to change it"
Both of them describe my own philosophy of understanding and of action,
which is to "go for it" with what you believe to be true at the moment, and
expect to learn and change just as much as you teach and change others.
You'll be hearing more about Henry when I report to the list on the Geneva
experience. He is a 76-year-old Jesuit activist most of whose life was
spent working with peasants in India. I put him in the class of "saint
candidates", although I must inform you I'd put thousands, not hundreds, of
people historically in that class as well. Most of them are unknown to
history and I therefore cannot name them.
Henry's work has been _very effective and he has the _critically important
skill to "clone" his leadership abilities in the projects he helps
initiate. This is a skill which could have made a big difference in the
world if it were _even _more fully accessible than it has been to such
leaders as Ghandi, Castro, JFK, and others. Of course these people have
_profoundly influenced the understanding and empowerment of others, but in
their cases there has been (will be) an unfortunate movement shadow left on
their departure from direct participation.
Castro is not a dictator, as Washington pretends, and the democratic
process in Cuba would survive his leadership. But Castro is also an
important person on the world stage, and in this sense I believe Cuba (and
the world) would be better off if there were someone being groomed as
successor spokesman for Cuba in case of failing health at some point with
Fidel himself.
rkm
