ChgoRed, Girl Editor

Poetry Hour

The Chicago River is iced over, and this poem keeps coming into my head.

Ask Me, by William Stafford

Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt: ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.

I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.

Gandhi: The World's Worst Divorce Lawyer

From Gandhi's autobiography, a whole new way to look at the law business.

He was called in to consult on a civil case involving two businessmen. Gandhi convinced both sides to agree to arbitration, and then persuaded the winner to take his payments in installments, thus saving the losing side from bankruptcy.

"[Both sides] were happy over the result, and both rose in the public estimation. My joy was boundless. I had learnt the true practice of law. I had learnt to find out the better side of human nature and to enter men's hearts. I realized that the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties riven asunder. The lesson was so indelibly burnt into me that a large part of my time during the twenty years of my practice as a lawyer was occupied in bringing about private compromises of hundreds of cases. I lost nothing thereby--not even money, certainly not my soul."

Object Lesson

On my mind this week, a quote from Gandhi. OK, not Gandhi; Nishkulanand Swami, quoted in Gandhi's autobiography. Still, on my mind.

"Renunciation of objects, without the renunciation of desires, is shortlived, however you may try."

Simple, but it fits right into aspects of my life--trying to eat better, trying to spend less money, etc. You can give up the Krispy Kreme, but until you give up the desire for Krispy Kreme, you're doomed to go get one eventually.