On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti…
I
We remember the Mahatma not because of what he said, but what he did.
Tolerance is not you standing on a mountain, banging your chest, and proclaiming to the world, “I am tolerant”.
That is aggressive arrogance.
Tolerance is lived in our lives everyday.
How tolerant will I be today?
II
I say that my tolerance has reached its limits.
But isn’t my tolerance, with inscribed limits, another word for intolerance?
(PS. To you lovely ladies out there, Eid Mubaraq!)
4 Comments
October 2, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Christina, interesting post. A question: How far must one tolerate and what kind of tolerance are we talking about here? I mean we obviously do not tolerate violence, whatever form it may take. In some dim recess of my mind I remember that line ‘You cant have too much of an ‘open’ brain because then you will never have an opinion.’
I dont know if this can apply to tolerance at all but just a thought. Geesh, I guess I’m hungry which is why Im getting all philosophical here. I’d better go eat.
October 2, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Please ignore my babbling
October 2, 2008 at 8:57 pm
October 3, 2008 at 10:11 am
When I put that down, I was thinking about religious and cultural tolerance.
But, following your question, I did some more thinking on that… And I think tolerance is that great ability to respectfully give things the space to just be, without needling them into becoming things that they don’t want to become. Whether it’s culture or relationships – the modern world seems to have lost a lot of it.
And I think that tolerance is no longer tolerance, when you are conscious of have to tolerate somebody.
In that context, I think you’d have to relate the ‘open’ brain idea cause I’m not able to make the connection.
One should think. But my right to think, does not take away the other person’s right to think too.