Stone Soup Leadership Institute

Category: L.9-10.5 (Language | Vocabulary Acquisition and Use)

Table for Six Billion, Please

Judy Wicks was 5 years old when she opened her first “restaurant.” Now the owner of Philadelphia’s White Dog Cafe, she “lures innocent people into social activism” by getting people from different worlds to sit down to a good dinner and talk with each other. Through her local Sister Restaurant and international Eating with the Enemy programs, she gets people who might consider themselves enemies to instead become friends. And for some of the patrons of her restaurant, it’s been more – a life-changing experience that has opened the world. Judy’s vision for the world is “Table for six billion, please.”

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Helping Others to See

For people at the Aravind Eye Hospital in Mudurai, India, Dr. V is a hero. Both a village elder and a hospital chief, he insists that his staff provide “impeccable service” and guides his institution of compassion with a glance, a word, a silent presence, a smile. As Gandhi once said, “My life is my message.” Dr. V’s ·unique blend of being and doing is his message. Thanks to support from the Seva Foundation, he and his staff perform 92,000 cataract surgeries a year and 850,000 treatments to prevent blindness. “If you allow the divine force to flow through you, you will accomplish things far greater than you imagined,” says Dr. V. In this story, Seva’s founder, Ram Dass, explains how their support for Dr. V – balances ”being and doing” — or compassionate Actions and compassionate hearts — so they can do the most good for others in the world.

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A Lesson in Giving

Clair Nuer was a Holocaust and cancer survivor who taught people how to use the difficulties they face as levers to change their lives. Laura Gates was a successful businesswoman who had reached a point of both personal and professional despair. One day, Claire said something that touched her very deeply, “One person can be the rock that changes the course of a river.” In this story, Laura tells how Claire’s words inspired her to have the courage to tell one client the truth, instead of “minding her own business,” and how this moment of truth changed everything. ”The impact I was able to have by being compassionate and giving rather than getting was amazing,” she says. “If each one of us made this kind of commitment, collectively we really could build a better world.”

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