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By Daniela Geracitano Vance
The idea for The Jade Book: A Stone of Hope came in the late summer of 1999, when
my father visited the Galleria Da Vinci in Vancouver’s Canada Place. There
he saw a large vase made out of jade with rings linked to its handles. These intrigued
him and ultimately led to his idea of creating a book with two arches - also made
of jade - for the spine.
These arches would extend up from and be a part of the fourth and last page of
the book, linking the first three pages so that they could be turned while remaining
bound together. He made the rudimentary sketch of the imagined book while still
working on the jade bust of my mother. He initially thought of the book as an
album that would contain the images, carved in low relief, of family members,
but the book’s potential subjects changed several times.
In the summer of 2001, once all the pages were freed from the nephrite matrix,
my father chose the definitive theme for his book. What he truly wanted to carve
was something that conveyed the message that we are all equal and united in our
humanity. Since this was a form so complex that it had never been carved before,
he now felt that it had to address the most important of themes.
My father first thought of carving the faces of people with varying ethnic backgrounds
to show that we are more alike than different. Then he refined his idea to carving
well-known humanitarians: Mother Teresa, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma
Gandhi. These three people represented different genders, ages, nationalities
and religions - the types of differences that divided many people and had been
used repeatedly throughout history as an excuse for war.
Despite their differences, these humanitarians were fundamentally linked. Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi, whom the Indian people called Mahatma or Great Soul and Gandhiji,
liberated India from British rule in 1947. He freed 350 million Indians armed
with his philosophy of non-violent resistance, otherwise known as Satyagraha or
pursuit of truth.
In 1948, the year that Gandhi was assassinated, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, who the
world came to know as Mother Teresa, stepped out onto the streets of Calcutta,
India to serve the poorest of the poor by living like them and among them. Prompted
by the call of God she had received in 1946, she founded the Missionaries of Charity.
Her order continues to help hundreds of thousands of people around the world each
year including the hungry, the homeless, abandoned and orphaned children, unwed
mothers, lepers, AIDS patients, and victims of natural disasters. Mother Teresa
was so loved in India that when she died in 1997, her body was carried on the
same gun carriage used during the funeral procession for Mahatma Gandhi.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the champion of the Civil Rights Movement in the
United States. His actions led to the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which
helped put an end to segregation, and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which made voter
registration possible for a greater number of African-Americans living in the
South. He was profoundly influenced by the teachings of Gandhi on non-cooperation,
and non-violent social change, which he began studying while in Crozer Theological
Seminary and after hearing Mordecai Johnson lecture on the Mahatma in 1950. Dr.
King even travelled to India in 1959 to continue learning about Gandhian philosophy.
Like his mentor, he was imprisoned several times and ultimately assassinated in
1968.
Mother Teresa, Dr. King and Mahatma Gandhi completely surrendered their lives
for the principles they believed in, the equality and fundamental rights of every
human being. In their eyes, every human life had the same intrinsic value; they
accepted this without question. They were true carvers of peace, and the stone
they worked was harder and even tougher than nephrite. As a result of their prodigious
love of humanity, derived from their strong spiritual foundations, they were able
to do many beautiful things.
My father was deeply moved by their courage and in awe of the way their words
and actions had transformed the world around them. He decided to carve more than
their images, he also included their words: Mother Teresa’s Works of Love
Are Works of Peace, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Let Freedom Ring, and Mahatma
Gandhi’s You Must Be the Change You Wish to See in the World. My father
chose these sentences because they spoke of human potential for change, of each
individual’s ability to be more just, compassionate, accepting, charitable,
loving and peaceful. Once my father started carving, his reverence and affection
for these three humanitarians deepened, and his eyes would sometimes water at
the very mention of their names.
The Jade Book: A Stone of Hope is available at Banyen Books, Free Spirit Books
and online at www.colossalcreations.com where you will also find more information
on Project Stone of Hope.
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