My friend, Sheila, who was a tough-minded New York City career newspaperwoman turned magazine writer. She prided herself on her cynical view on life and her ability to not be taken in.
One day over lunch she got an assignment from her editor at the magazine she was working for to do a story on Mother Teresa, and she welcomed the opportunity. She saw the piece as an exposé. “I thought she was a fraud, a genius at public relations maybe,” Sheila said. “But I disliked her conservative theology, which I thought demeaned women, and I found her constant involvement with the rich and famous very suspect.”1 She explained to me how she arranged to join Mother Teresa and spend more than a week traveling with her and watching her at one of her hospices.
“My first impression never changed. I disagreed with almost everything she had to say about religion. I found her views about God depressing, and her vision about the place of women in the church almost medieval. At the same time, from the very first moment I was in her presence, I had this overpowering urge to call the magazine and tell them that I wasn’t coming back; […]
As a nation, are we all like Trump? That is the question we have to ask.
Beautiful article. Short yet very illustrative. Started reading The 8 Laws of Change over the holiday, so far it is terrific.
This reminds me of the Maharishi Mahish Yogi whose beingness overwhelmed everyone when he would enter a room, no matter what their belief system they might have had at the particular moment. That is why his followers grew in numbers so fast when he was alive, and his message grew and is still thriving today: he eschewed beingness.