INGRID SHAFER'SCYBERSITES
"Cor ad cor loquitur."
"We must love one another or die."
"That art thou, Svetaketu."
W. H. Auden
". . . the Holy Ghost over the bent
Chandogya Upanishad
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.""Living things reach out to each other, spirit leaps between. Tropism becomes scent, becomes fascination, becomes lust, becomes love. Lizard to fox to monkey to man, in a look, in a word, we come together, touch, die, serve spirit without knowing, carry it forward, pass it on. Ever more winged the spirit, ever greater its leaps. We love someone far away, someone who died long ago."
Gerard Manley Hopkins
"The critical problem then for those who wish to expand the area of trust and love in human relationships is not to eliminate diversity but to understand how diversity can be integrated in some form of unity. . . . The critical question is how to use these tensions and diversities to create a richer, fuller human society instead of a narrow, frightened and suspicious society."
Allen Wheelis
"Love is saying yes to belonging."
Andrew Greeley
"Death or Dialogue!"
David Steindl-Rast
Leonard Swidler
. . . And yet throughout history there were men and women who exemplified pursuit of knowledge and non-judgmental love. In terms of the Holocaust, we call them the Righteous among Nations. In their vision and courage I found hope. They should be our heroes.This is why I have dedicated my life to building bridges between people, ethnic groups, religions, denominations, philosophies, and academic disciplines. I am convinced that the future of humanity depends on several crucial attitudes:
- Maintaining faith that our lives are grounded in a center of meaning and point towards a transcendent focus.
- Behaving like guests in the universe instead of parasites.
- Being willing to explore disagreements and grow in understanding through dialogue.
- Showing respect for the "other" without rejecting our own roots.
- Basing human relationships less on visceral reactions than informed, nuanced thinking.
We can do it! I was born one month before World War II began. Stalingrad, London, Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki . . . at least 30 million victims of the Holocaust and Stalin's purges . . . the bomb . . . the Cultural Revolution . . . . And yet, half a century after the end of World War II this Austrian is a U.S. citizen who teaches in the United States, writes this introduction on a computer with parts manufactured in Japan, and has students from all over the world, including Russia, China, and Japan. If this can happen at the University of Science and Arts in Chickasha, Oklahoma, it can happen elsewhere. And that makes all the difference.
- Having the courage to love.
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Last revised 30 September 2001
Copyright © 1996-2001 Ingrid H. Shafer