JenniferOladipo.com

I had a long chat about Gandhi with his grandson, Rajmohan Gandhi, over lunch a year and a half ago. He and I were among 50 or so people invited to gather for a weekend in New York and discuss how Gandhi’s principle of satyagraha, which dubbed his movement for social change, related to the human approach to climate change. Satyagraha means “grasping to truth” or “truth force.” Most of the people there, like Rajmohan Gandhi, had been doing incredible work worldwide for decades, and I’m still amazed when I think about having been invited. The details of that lunch conversation escape me now, but I do recall how well he articulated the connection between his grandfather’s work (he was the elder Gandhi’s biographer)  and the future of environmental stewardship.

So that’s what I’m thinking of today, Gandhi’s birthday. I also can’t help but consider the many people I’ve met since then who will never reach Gandhi-status, but are similarly defined by their life’s work of righting wrongs and writing wrongs, of voicing truths, or of reminding the world about those tangible and intangible treasures that threaten to disappear if we don’t remain vigilant. If we don’t remain grateful. Some of you are those people, and I thank you for the inspiration.

Read Mohandas Gandhi’s writings here. This site is packed. I can’t vouch for it 100%, but it seems valid.

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