The TV studio set for a prestige production <br />of the sort that wins renewed network contracts <br />if not viewers, late on Sunday night: <br />the subject, a weekly series on <br />The History of Christianity - <br />worthy discussion leader, impressive panel <br />mingling ecclesiastical robes of <br />a glowing spectrum of faiths with the <br />open-necked, for open-minded, <br />dress-down of young freethinkers, but <br />respectful of their elders, with it; <br />subtle lighting on the semi-circular panel <br />and the background, tastefully designed <br />with hints of the history of otherworldliness <br /> <br />and among the assembled voices <br />of faith and reason in their polite battle, <br />the great intellectual guru of the Western world <br />himself – would his searing intellect, his daunting <br />global dimensions of mind, dominate <br />this gathering? <br /> <br />Life can have its glorious surprises even <br />on a dozy, precious-last-weekend-hours <br />of a Sunday night – George said his piece, <br />then, challenged by the other speakers, <br />sat there listening: as if, without a resistant, reacting, <br />or self-regarding thought in his head – <br />listened rapt in full attention, as if expecting <br />to listen to a further, deeper truth from <br />those who argued against him – his face <br />benign, almost smiling <br /> <br />I have never seen such intellectual humility – <br />as if, way, way beyond the personal, a mind <br />was listening constantly, for truth, to truth itself.. <br />listening to that listening, <br />I felt proud to be <br />a human being.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/0419-tribute-to-a-listening-man-george-steiner/
