Yesterday I found myself at the Spalding Site of Nez Perce National Historic Park, where I read the following from Chief Joseph:
Let me be a free man—free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to think and talk and act for myself—and I will obey every law, or submit to the penalty.
For some reason, I thought of something Thelonious Monk once said:
When I was a kid, some of the guys would try to get me to hate white people for what they’ve been doing to Negroes, and for a while I tried real hard. But every time I got to hating them, some white guy would come along and mess the whole thing up.
Which, inexplicably, reminded me of this, from Mahatma Gandhi:
Experience has taught me that silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. We find so many people impatient to talk. All this talking can hardly be said to be of any benefit to the world. It is so much waste of time.
So what’s the connection? Beats me. Could be something about how we all just need to shut the hell up. Quit telling people what to do, what to think, how to act. Try listening for a change. And maybe—just maybe—we might be able to get along a little better.
Or it could be that my synapses are just misfiring in my old age.
