7/11/2013

I'm slightly puzzled because I don't know how far back one needs to go in order to call it a Throwback Thursday. I don't know the rules. Are two months enough? It can't be more than two months since this picture was taken.


There are those great days you look forward to and get ready for but sometimes the most awesome days just kinda happen. That day two months ago just kinda happened. One day I sit in the caf and have B. and G. R. convince me that it is absolutely essential for me as an educated human being to go to Cambridge to hear Dr Cornel West's lecture. And then the next day we just get on the train and go. I remember it was the day my kids wrote the Greek exam (excuse my language, in my head I always called them this way, ignoring the fact that some of them were quite a bit older than me - I mean no disrespect) and I wasn't sure if I was even allowed to leave the campus on that day. But somehow I managed to talk my way out of my responsibilities and sneak out of the campus. And then London and then Cambridge and we suddenly found ourselves sitting in a crowded lecture hall in Cambridge University and listening to Dr West (who, I have a feeling, would rather have him called brother West) in a complete silence, feeling very small and not very educated after all. Listening to him brought a mental picture in my head - I'm like a kid who has two or three puzzle pieces in her hand, trying really hard to fit them in the right place, and then comes a guy who somehow manages to see the whole picture and who juggles with hundreds of pieces with such an elegance that you just stare at him and his magic, totally mesmerised. That's how I felt. It was a beautiful and very humbling experience.

I listened to Dr West's radio program the other day and once again it made me realised something I intuitively already knew - I don't know much about this world yet. I've got a long way to go.

But even more than the knowledge and the elegance and charisma, I wish one day I would have what it takes to honestly and without any falseness be able to call all people - despite their beliefs - my brothers and sisters. Brother West does this and maybe that's the thing I like the best about him.

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