What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
During my school days I was taught that rapid progress grew out of revolution, and war leading to reform filled with better days for all. With the passage of time I learnt that revolutions had a habit of transferring power, and wealth from one interested faction to another.
For the individual human person it is through small steps that we move forward to serve not just our own aspirations, but also assist those who enter our life in need of our practical help.
It is through our actions that we realise our dreams, when ever we elect to do more than talk, or write of changing life for the better.
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” — Leo Tolstoy
When the Russian Revolution erupted in 1917 Count Leo Tolstoy had been dead some seven years, despite which his family had continued to respect Tolstoy's wishes that all employees working and living on Tolstoy's estates should be treated with equal respect. Revolutionary forces discovered that Tolstoy had done much more than write on Christian values, he had implemented those virtues into the everyday life of his family and estate employees. The Revolutionary forces learnt that great change begins with small steps, available to every human person who chooses to do more than talk, and write about changing the world for the better.
Reading Count Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is Within You also convinced India's Mahatma Gandhi to avoid violence and espouse nonviolent change, a debt Gandhi acknowledged in his autobiography, calling Tolstoy "the greatest apostle of non-violence that the present age has produced"
In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets. ~ Matthew 7:12
end
Responses