Gandhi's Birthday

Today is the Birthday of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi-- Gandhi, the great soul. His hard work and dedication to the ideals of nonviolence and freedom, as well as to the well-being of his motherland, have enshrined him in history as a symbol of idealism and the ability of the human spirit to triumph over great obstacles. He was, really, just a human being--but how many of us fellow human beings can even fathom such sacrifice, such focus, such determination to maintain a kind and hopeful heart? Many of life's failures are failures of imagination. Historians may debate the exact proportion of Gandhi's contribution to ushering in the world's biggest secular democracy, and our measure of his exact political works may ebb and flow. What will not ebb and flow is the fact that no one need imagine the idea of Gandhi out of whole cloth. It already exists for all of us to tap into, carefully and respectfully, I hope.