A Simple Blue-and-White Sari

Well, today is the centenary of Mother Teresa’s birth . . . and the occasion, it appears, for a bust-up in New York, after the proprietors of the Empire State Building declined to mark the occasion with simple blue and white lighting (to symbolise her sari/habit . . . presumably with a crucifix projected onto the ‘shoulder’ !)

Instead – and apparently it’s a decision only taken after they refused Mother Teresa the lighting for her centenary – it’s going to go red, white, and blue . . . to commemorate the enormously important ninetieth anniversary of the legislation which gave women the vote in the US.

I don’t know : the story on America’s ‘Politics Daily’ website is interesting, and does make it clear that there are all sorts of aspects of this which most of us probably don’t get . . . but it does seem to me that there’s one which perhaps the proprietors of the Empire State Building don’t get : namely that there was someone who gave every moment of her life for others . . . and more, for those who had no way of persuading her to give them anything at all. Her ability to persuade others has proved to be in directly inverse ratio to the importance of those to whom she gave everything she had.

Are you paying attention, Mr Malkin ? You might just win a lot more friends by honouring those who ‘don’t matter’ . . . and if Mother Teresa doesn’t convince you, then it might be worth a trip to the bookstore to buy a copy of the Martyrology : because that very well might, if you can be bothered to read it.