MONDAY MUSE (24 Nov 2008)
THE COLD WITHIN
James Patrick Kinney wrote the allegory "The Cold Within" in the 1960s. Though
the Saturday Evening Post rejected it as "too controversial for the times”, it
remains as meaningful today as the day it was written.
The verse sketches the attitude of six persons trapped in a bitter cold… Each
has a stick of wood as they surround a dying fire… But each holds it back so
that the other does not benefit… Their motives are varied… the stubborn stance
is born of chauvinism against skin color, religion, race, class or just plain
selfishness. All of them eventually succumb to the cold, that they refuse to
fend lest the other benefits.
The poem captures the lesson so well when it confirms that “They didn't die
from the cold without, they died from the cold within.” So often we find fault
with others to the extent of considering them as undeserving of any human
rights. We are consumed by a devastating hatred that does destroy our sense of
logic and values. For the hatred that kills without, first devours us from
within.
And it is not just negative actions that lead to ruin… intentional indifference
does wreck as well. It is important for us to realize that our prejudices not
only harm others, they incinerate us as well. Hence it is for own sake that we
need to unlearn prejudices that instigate us to being inhuman in our response
to other human beings.
To BE BETTER at fighting the killing cold without…
The cold within must be contested… have no doubt!
- Pravin-da
24 November 2008, Goa, India.
Since 2004, the MONDAY MUSE series (based on JCI-India’s annual theme) is
penned by PRAVIN SABNIS - a life coach with a passion to connect people to
their passion & potential. He employs creative competencies in theatre &
trekking in his UNLEARNING UNLIMITED workshops conducted for leading corporate
& other groups.
---- Pravin K. Sabnis
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