Making A Quilt In India

On the way up north to meet my older son and his family half way for dinner, my wife and I were talking about how to make our lifestyle more sustainable. Fresh from India, my ideas were along the lines of using organic fertilizers, having a healthy diet of more vegetables and less meat, growing plants in our front yard, and living simply. My ideas were very specific, while I think she was looking for a broader discussion of lifestyle.

Since returning from India I find myself less interested in talking about ideas like ‘sustainability’, and more drawn to practical ideas of what to do. It is similar to the feeling I had when I got out of prison in 1970 for my participation in the Milwaukee 14. At that time I was no longer interested in protesting or demonstrating against the war in Vietnam. I just wanted to do something practical and useful to help kids stay out of jail. I did just that, starting, with two others, a school for high school boys and girls that were rejected by the public and private high school system at the time.

Now I find myself less interested in signing petitions, making phone calls or writing letters or even demonstrating for causes like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or the US-backed terrorist strikes of Israel on the people of Palestine in the Gaza strip. I want to do something, but not the same old, same old, protesting, letter writing, debating and even voting. These things just do not seem to matter when it comes to issues of war and peace, justice and injustice.

So all I can think of to do in the areas of nonviolence and sustainability, the heart of India and Gandhi, is to more effectively insulate my house against this terrible cold, take direct nonviolent actions to try to stop the military war and violence training at Marquette, and to write my daily diary. I can also pray and reflect on these life-and-death issues. Ultimately I must do what I must do.

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