Saturday, June 30, 2012

Moved to grateful tears, again, by Ian Brown and changing the world

I wrote about Ian Brown's amazing book The Boy in the Moon nearly a year ago. Today, I came upon a  snippet of video on Louise's blog from a presentation he gave at Holland Bloorview.

Please watch this:



Did you listen to Mr. Brown's dream? The one about L'Arche and living and working, creating, doing what you do, in these homes between where these people live? For one month? Did you hear him describe his dream of you eating your meals, three times a day and then bathing one person once a week? Did you hear him imagine how that would change the world?

I believe it to be so.

6 comments:

  1. I think he has a beautiful dream. Our society, here in the US, cherishes individualism so much. We are the lone cowboys, aren't we? And when we DO need help, when we DO need others, it's impossible to find them without paying them. Almost.
    I don't know how much we can change that. Maybe over the course of history. Maybe.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, wow.

    Again, I'm without words after visiting here.

    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. One of my favorite books, The Rerurn of the Prodigal, is by Hemri Nouwen who lived for years in a L'Arche community in Canada. Profoundly revolutionary ideas. Subversive orthodoxy.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That is a very interesting idea. I think most people are terrified of imperfection. Becoming more intimately acquainted with it would certainly ease that discomfort.

    (The same fear is behind such forces as homophobia -- not because gay people are imperfect, but because they're perceived that way by people who are, as a result, afraid of them.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you, once again, for illuminating a land few travel on the map of human experience. I just ordered Mr. Brown's memoir.

    ReplyDelete