August 5
Become who you are. Let your virtue be your very own work, not an inherited garment that has been draped over you — and too precious to be shared with the names of the crowd.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (freely rendered)
The Violin Had to Go
Become who you are. Let your virtue be your very own work, not an inherited garment that has been draped over you — and too precious to be shared with the names of the crowd.
As a student in London, Gandhi wanted to become an English gentleman. He bought a top hat and an evening suit, practised tying his tie and struggled with his hair in front of the mirror every day.
Dancing, he had heard, was part of it. After about six dancing lessons he still couldn't keep time. Perhaps he lacked an ear for music. So he bought a violin and took lessons in that as well. A third teacher was to teach him to speak well.
Then he wrote to the dancing teacher and the elocution teacher, calling off the lessons. He went to the violin teacher in person: would she sell the instrument, at whatever price.
His enthusiasm for this education had lasted about three months. He went on paying meticulous attention to his clothes for years.
