Jul 3rd, 2007
Travelling in Unity
. . . when travelling and journeying throughout the world, wherever one finds construction, it is the result of fellowship and love, while everything that is in ruin shows the effect of enmity and hatred. `Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’í writings
This weekend I travelled with my husband, daughter and two grandchildren to Madrid for a Momen family reunion. Although we were fewer than 25, we represented nine nationalities (Spanish, British, American, Brazilian, Austrian, Italian, German, South African and Iranian) and family members arrived from Spain, Israel, England, Switzerland, the US, Germany, Austria and Iran. The ages ranged from 87 to 6 months (my granddaughter, Aaliyeh). It was truly unity and `construction’.
While we were together the terrorist attacks on Britain took place, `the effect of enmity and hatred’.
I was reminded of the fable about the sun and north wind, who were having a discussion about which was the more powerful. They could not agree but continued talking until they spied a traveller walking along the road below, his cloak flapping behind him. The north wind and the sun saw an opportunity to demonstrate their powers.
The north wind insisted he could remove the traveller’s cloak more easily than the sun could. He blew and blew with tremendous power, expending all his icy force to make the cloak fly off the traveller’s back. But as the icy wind struck the traveller, he merely pulled the cloak more tightly around himself. Eventually the north wind, realizing he had not succeeded, challenged the sun to do better.
The sun took up the challenge. It simply came out from behind the clouds brought by the north wind’s blowing and beamed gently and benignly on the traveller, enveloping him with warmth. The travelling, amazed at the sudden change in the weather, grew so hot that he took his cloak off . The north wind had to admit that the gentle power of sun was greater than his own.
Force and violence are destructive and cannot provide a long-term solution to problems - they generally make things much worse. Love and unity, on the other hand, are constructive and much more powerful that violence. This is the basic message of Bahá’u'lláh, founder of the Bahá’í Faith, and it is this lesson that the Momen family has learned.
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