Posts by Stephanie Van Hook

“Evolution and perfection”–Daily Metta

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December 9: “Maybe, some of you may be that perfect teacher who is to come.” –Gandhi (Harijan, July 21, 1940) Gandhi by no means thought that he would be the end-game of nonviolence. He was a prophet, but in no way the last one. To make that claim would require a refusal to understand the… read more

“Intelligent and Creative Efforts”–Daily Metta

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December 8: “A mere belief in ahimsa or the charkha will not do. It should be intelligent and creative.” –Gandhi (Harijan, July 21, 1940) Once when Gandhi was asked about Hitler, he said we should look seriously at the efforts he was putting forward. It was partly to stress, I think, that violence isn’t “natural;”… read more

“Reframing Masculinity”–Daily Metta

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December 7: “Human nature will only find itself when it fully realizes that to be human it has to cease to be brutal.” –Gandhi (Harijan, October 8, 1938) Almost everywhere we go, masculinity and violence tend to be conflated. This violence is toward oneself, in so far as “manly” often means shutting oneself off from… read more

“We are not machines”–Daily Metta

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December 6: “After all, men are not machines.” –Gandhi (Harijan, April 14, 1946) Stephen Lewis worked as a drone operator for the United States Air Force. From a military base, in a comfortable chair sitting in front of a computer screen, he held a joystick and targeted and killed human beings because he was following… read more

“Principles like food”–Daily Metta

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December 5: “Ill-digested principles are, if anything, worse than ill-digested food.” –Gandhi (Mahatma, vol. 4, p. 154) Food is to the body what principles are to the spirit. When food is rotten, it can harm the body; when our principles are corrupted, they harm us and conceivably the world around us. Thus Gandhi maintains that… read more

“Grow with me”–Daily Metta

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December 4: “I want you also to grow with me.” –Gandhi (Mahatma, vol. 4, p. 154) I heard a song today, a freedom song, one sung in places like Selma and Birmingham in the 1960s. The singer, from Sweet Honey in the Rock, said, “I’d like to teach you a song. It will be the… read more

“Once the seed is planted…”–Daily Metta

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December 2: “I may tell you that I am constantly evolving, and the application of my principles is ever widening.” –Gandhi (Mahatma, vol. 4, p. 154) When we first hear about nonviolence, few of us believe that it can be put to work in almost every situation and every relationship imaginable. We usually (if you’re… read more

“Peace brigades now”–Daily Metta

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December 1: “The need for the peace brigades was never more urgent than now.” –Gandhi (Mahatma, vol. 6, p.53) When Gandhi pronounced these words in the 1940s, it was in response to someone inquiring what could be done by the Indian Congress in the face of “raids and scares and possible disturbances.” His response, however,… read more