Nobel Laureate Martin Luther King Jr. , 97 [15 January 1929 – 4 April 1968] [born Michael King Jr.]. Leader of the civil rights movement, 1955-68. Using nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience. His famous ‘I have a dream’ speech – …. All men are created equal… I have a dream today…. little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers….His another speech ‘How long, not long’ said: equal rights for African Americans could not be far away, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice and you shall reap what you sow. King’s last sermon said: I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others. I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to love somebody. I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. And I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity. Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major. Say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind.
We, most of us, are stuck with screens. mobiles, laptops. emails, messages, social media, updates, dashboards, news feeds, and entertainment. Amidst all this, some are attempting to push back this. Fighting digital fatigue. To reduce digital dominance, to adapt to an analog lifestyle. Tactile experiences, deliberate time, offline connections, shared experiences, and field immersions. Reading, writing, physical planning, taking notes by hand, and offline shopping. Walking around. Being in nature. Slowing down. Hands-on works. Crosswords, puzzles. So on and so forth. Can we do this?
What do conferences, workshops, and congresses achieve? In the development sector. Across themes – philanthropy, governance, education, health, livelihoods, water and sanitation, climate change, agriculture, women’s and children’s rights, disability, citizen engagement et al. Will they foster learning, reflection? Will they connect with people? Will they generate or add value to the participants? In any significant way. Inclusion, equity, and representation are casualties many a time. Hierarchies of money, language, location, caste, and class seem to operate. Time for issues is limited, and not adequate to discuss and learn from. Multiple views are not fully accessed, not heard fully. Time for questions and answers is extremely limited. Spaces for full participation of the participants are rarely created.
Can we have deliberate spaces and times for exchanges, networking, dialogues, debates, and collective learning? Flexible participation? More democratic slots and spaces? Can we go for more of writeshops? Doing what is written thereafter. Can we go for more learning conversations, apprenticeships, mentoring moments, and events? Can we go for open question-answer sessions, demonstrations, exposures, handholding, and troubleshooting? Can we go for sharing and discussing analytics, processes, results, logic of results and processes, case studies, live case studies, immersions, and inductions, in situ? Can we practice, keep practicing? Can we learn, practice, learn, and practice?
Yes, we can. If we coexist, flowing. Living, learning, leading, serving. In N? nishevanayoga for 7L.