Howard Thurman? Gil Bailie? Apocryphal?
Dear Quote Investigator: If you are an altruistic or philanthropic person you face many choices. It is natural to ask, “What does the world need?” Yet, it is essential to maintain commitment and enthusiasm. Hence, you should ask yourself what makes you come alive. This will help you decide what to do. The world needs people who have come alive.
Apparently, the renowned religious figure Howard Thurman said something like this. Would you please help me to find a citation?
Quote Investigator: In 1995 teacher Gil Bailie published “Violence Unveiled: Humanity at the Crossroads”. Bailie stated that he heard the quotation under examination from Howard Thurman. Boldface added to excerpts by
Drogheda
knowing as I do that my attention has
no agency, none at all. Nor my rage.”
[
music: “What Did You Not Hear” by Gautam Srikishan]
So this poem is a study and a story of Eavan Boland’s grandmother. In 1904, the grandmother had gone on a trip to Dublin from Drogheda. That’s a journey of about 50 miles. Drogheda is a large town about 50 miles north of Dublin. And when the grandmother had got home to Drogheda after having been in Dublin, she found an eviction notice on her door. And evictions carry a long history in Ireland, being used as a tool of oppression, as a tool of empire, with punishing measures and no accountability in the setting of rents or the changing of rents by those people who were landlords, and a deep complicity between landlords and empire. At the time, in 1904, Ireland wasn’t independent yet. And so this poem is about a tiny little experience of empire.