To the editor:
Senator Susan Collins’ clarion call for “civility in Washington and communities” (S-H 4/8) is hopeful, and inspires some questions in my mind that I hope other citizens are wondering about and beginning to discuss.
Washington has had prayer breakfasts for a long time, but despair seems to be thickening. Can bipartisan lunches reverse, or even modify the demands and controls of the gargantuan, money-obsessed lobbies in Washington and State capitols?
Will the lobbyists be invited to these lunches to share thoughtful discussions of ethics and/or the teachings of Jesus, and how to morph the pervasive spirit of competition into selfless cooperation? Or will they use these lunches for brawling over big bucks and power? If so, we’d better start talking at the grassroots level about societal transformation. Such talk will simultaneously transform individuals.
Sen. Collins is rightfully calling for a change of mass values, a change of heart and interests. But what could spark such a change short of the “coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory?”
There’s an ancient Chinese proverb that says, “Pain makes man think; thinking makes man wise, and wisdom makes life enjoyable.” Accordingly, the Indian spiritual master Meher Baba is correct: “All suffering is God’s labor of love,” and he has a popular pamphlet in circulation titled, “Travail of the New World Order.”
That certainly doesn’t mean we should inflict pain on ourselves or on others. It means we must eventually contemplate the source or cause of all pain and uproot it everywhere in the world. Such activity is the greatest source of soul enrichment and eternal, real liberation. If I may again quote Meher Baba, “Real happiness lies in making others happy.”
Are those partisan politicians and soul-sold lobbyists and their corporate dictators yet sickened enough of decadent greed and corrupting power to follow the lead of the most conscientious politician in Washington — Sen. Susan Collins — to live for creating a utopian world? It’s a good topic for bipartisan lunches.
Val Vadis
Westfield
