Buechner: Gandhi Silence
A Telling Silence
“I REMEMBER ONCE going to see the movie Gandhi when it first came out. . . . We were the usual kind of noisy, restless Saturday night crowd as we sat there waiting for the lights to dim with our popcorn and soda pop, girlfriends and boyfriends, legs draped over the backs of the empty seats in front of us. But by the time the movie came to a close with the flames of Gandhi's funeral pyre filling the entire wide screen, there was not a sound or a movement in that whole theater, and we filed out of there—teenagers and senior citizens, blacks and whites, swingers and squares—in as deep and telling a silence as I have ever been part of.”
Frederick Buechner, The Clown in the Belfry, Frederick Buechner Quote of the Day, November 30, 2017
We crave to silence the busyness in our heads. We try meditation, being with children, exercise, being outdoors, just sitting. Sometimes art forms can move us from our head to our hearts to the Christ within us in record time, as in the old Superman slogans, “like a speeding bullet.” Movies can do this for me especially about the life of those who know what suffering is like and learn from it rather than avoiding it or not living in the reality of it. I had the same experience when we first saw the movie, Gandhi. We walked out of the theater in silence. There were not words. The story about someone who brought about change by non-violence is a story we need to see or hear every day.
Joanna joannaseibert.com