Last weekend, I was invited to speak at a Gandhi conference in Pomona. It felt like most of the leading Gandhian scholars in the West were at the conference, along with many educators who cared to bring non-violence in school curriculums. Amongst the impressive roster of speakers, I was definitely the least educated and the least published. :)
I spoke about the gift-economy in the context of Gandhi's "soul force" movement. After the talk, a young man comes up to the mic to ask a question. I respond: "Before I answer, I gotta say that's a cool t-shirt." He prompted back: "Yeah, it's great. People always do a double-take and say, "got asthma", "got amisa", "what does that mean?" And it opens up great conversations about Ahimsa, non-violence."
The next day, I was gifted two other t-shirts like that. I gifted them forward, precisely because I thought it was so cool. That's gift-economy in action. But Rich, that young man who asked me the question, came up to me also and said, "I have an offering for you." While handing me a folded t-shirt, he adds, "It's a bit smelly since I haven't had a chance to launder it." Wow. His own t-shirt. That's soul-force in action.
That kind of stuff really moves me. Not only did I share Rich's story several times, but I hung on to that t-shirt for a while ... until the next day, as I shared the story with Chris and felt moved to gift him the t-shirt. :)
Rich: wherever you are, a bow of gratitude to you, my friend.
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