Day 11 - Jill Carr-Harris

Topic: Believing
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This letter celebrates the Season of Nonviolence that extends from January 30th to April 4th, from Mahatma Gandhi’s  to Martin Luther King’s Assassination Day. It is a missive written on Day 6 of the Season of Nonviolence particularly to celebrate the virtue of believing in others. 

In this regard, I recall my late father because he was a man who tried to live by his values and he taught his family to believe in “the good” in other human beings. In recalling his influence on me, I wrote this to celebrate the day of his birth.
 
Dear Dad:

As you would have reached 101 years today --had you lived longer than your mere 68 years-- you would have experienced the beauty of watching more grandchildren and great-grandchildren growing up. With them, as you did with your own children, you would have probably taught them some of your favourite prayers at bed-time.  You could have watched them recite these messages and see how they were woven into their lives. 

Since the prayers spoke to the values you held so dear, I want to reassure you that they were woven into the fabric of our family-life. They have provided great solace to me especially in times when the world has taken a challenging turn away from peace and collective prosperity to increased upheaval and violence. 

One of the prayers we used to recite together continues to nurture me everyday. 

I believe in myself and my own judgment,
In the Golden Rule and helping my fellow man.

I believe in the value of learning,
And the ability to laugh at myself.
In the practise of self-control,
And going more than half-way.

I believe in counting my blessings,
For all the good fortune I have.

In spite of your growing up without a mother, in a childhood marred by the the Great Depression and at the tender age of 18 facing the hardship of mine-sweeping in the North Atlantic during the last months of the Second World War, nonetheless  you remained consciously or unconsicously a humanist with a sense of unwavering optimism, believing in one’s responsibility to be good and to see goodness in others.  

These values were transmitted and have followed me through my life-time and I see them reflected in my brothers and in my son. For this I thank you. 

With love and respect,
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Your daughter, Jill (-ikans) 
(Jill Carr-Harris, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India and Toronto, Ontario)