Spiritual geniuses and saints have always called humanity to love, as have social reformers who

shifted the lived world on its axis. When the civil rights leaders began to force a reckoning

with otherness in the 1960s, they did so in the name of love. The political, economic aspirations

of this monumental work of social change in living

memory grew from an aspiration to create the beloved community. I did not grow up understanding this

movement and its vision in this fullness, though it unfolded during my lifetime. It was brought home to me tangibly

by the intensely dignified, pragmatically loving presence of John Lewis, now a congressman

from Georgia, who was beaten senseless on what became known as Bloody Sunday. I was privileged to

attend an annual civil rights pilgrimage with him, to Holy Ground in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Selma, Montgomery.

This is Becoming Wise, an inquiry into the mystery and art of living.

I'm Krista Tippett.

Music and art of living. I'm Krista Tippett. I've remembered so much in conversation with John Lewis and other veterans and leading

lights still among us. For weeks, months before any sit-in or march or ride, they studied the

Bible and Gandhi, Aristotle, and Thoreau. They internalized practical, physical disciplines of

courtesy and conduct, kindness, eye contact, coat and tie, dresses, no unnecessary words. They engaged in intense

role-playing, social drama. Whites putting themselves in the role of blacks being harassed,

black activists putting themselves in the shoes of policemen feeling threatened and under

orders to gain control. Einstein asked a what-if question

about pursuing a beam of light at the speed of light on his way to comprehending the nature of light

and gravity. John Lewis asked a what-if question as a tool for social alchemy? What if the beloved community were already a reality, the true reality,

and he simply had to embody it until everyone else could see?

When I was 11 years old, I traveled one summer with an uncle and aunt and some of my first cousin from rural

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