A custom in the universities is to have the upper class students buy the meals for the younger students. Recently in one of the universities the younger students started a fund for the older students to help defray the cost. The donation drive was an original and charming idea started by the newbies.
This custom of having the older students buy a meal and liquor for the younger ones goes back some time. The older students have taken this in stride, and felt the new students were worth the time and effort. They were innocent and entering a new world; showing concern was a way to help them in their transfer to the world of higher education, like a seedling needing care when transplanted. There was no need to repay this generosity but the desire to do so on the part of the new students was admirable, said the columnist.
At the same university last year a student put the words "How are you?" on a large poster on a bulletin board, and from there it spread quickly to other colleges and even found its way outside the educational arena, prompting students to speak about the problems they were having in society. This initiative also began inconspicuously and spread quickly. From a very small beginning, big changes proceed and we see a more beautiful and peaceful society.
The columnist mentions that he is working in the Cardinal Kim's Research Center which uses the spirituality of the Cardinal in educational programs for adults and in character education programs for the youth. Our columnist has the responsibility of talking about peace and its place in our lives.
This peace that the Cardinal talked about was not abstract or other worldly, the columnist points out, but a peace that we need now, a real peace that can be experienced in our daily lives, a peace that everyone needs to live a human life, and is centered on treating everyone with the dignity they deserve. With this understanding we are making for a peaceful society when we practice love, especially when shown to the most alienated and poor.
The Cardinal stressed that this type of love was to be carried out daily in our lives. This could be seen in the way the Cardinal lived his own life. The Cardinal, with his trademark smile, in meeting anyone would leave them with a feeling of warmth and ease. It was his everyday way of dealing with those he met.
In a word, everything we do, if done in the manner of Cardinal Kim, we will begin with the small things and do them well. And with these small changes in ourselves, we will be bringing peace to the entire world.
