Donald McGilchrist –the gracious leader

Every now and again People Magazine publishes an edition featuring the world’s most beautiful people. No prizes for guessing the profile of those who dominate. However on my list of beautiful people is a very different character.

I first heard of Donald McGilchrist when I listened to a cassette tape of talk he gave on global trends in the mid 80s. I was immediately captivated by the quality of his thinking. It was the first time I had been exposed to a theme that would be a formative thread through my life over the next decades. Donald’s ability to identify events from the past that help define the trajectory of society continues to inspire me.

I could not have imagined when I first listened to that cassette tape how much I would learn from Donald about how to work well and how to live well. Of the people I thank in this little series of posts, I have had the least amount of face to face time with Donald; he is a Brit who has lived long term in Colorado Springs. Although I have had numerous trips to that part of the world and Donald has been DownUnder once or twice over the last 25 years, the depth of Donald’s input into my life defies the ad hoc nature of our relationship.

Donald is many things. He is the only person I’ve every known who has described himself as an Archivist. He is an Historian who simply lights up at the prospect of understanding the events and meanings of the past. Although thoroughly an Englishman, he has become one of the premier authorities on the history of Colorado Springs, his adopted home. He is currently writing a history of The Navigators, the organisation through which we met. From him I have learned the value of place and the way events form a narrative of meaning.

Donald’s use of English vocabulary stands out in my experience. Occasionally he uses a word in correspondence that I’ve never heard before and I delight in discovering some new meaning. But Donald’s common prose is poetic, not pretentiously so, but because his thinking about, and expression of life has natural beauty. I wish I had learned to chose my words as thoughtfully.

One of the practical things I learned very early on from Donald was to subscribe to journals. I recall marvelling out loud with him one day about how well read he appeared to be. While he suggested modestly that he didn’t read many books, he confessed to having subscriptions to a wide range of periodicals. (I recall the number being 60, but that might be subject to an exaggerated memory!). The idea was that when authors are forced to write their thesis in the form of a journal article, they tend to say the important stuff in a tenth of the space they take in a book, which is often padded out with many irrelevancies. I do recall that when I asked him what his top 5 were, he included the Economist, which I’d never read until then and have done so ever since. I wish I could retain and process information into wisdom like Donald is able to.

Donald’s physique, he won’t mind me saying, means he is a long shot to make the cover of People Magazine. But a beautiful human being he is. Of all the things I have learned from Donald, the most significant is grace.

I have learned from Donald how to be a global citizen, a key characteristic of which in my view is graciousness. His role, for as long as I’ve known him has been an international one. The forums in which we have interacted have often been international gatherings. I have seen and admired the way Donald is able to immerse himself in the positive aspects of a culture and relentlessly pursue the perspective of ‘the other’. He is able to suspend his own judgements and biases to tease out the insights of others. He allows other people to be themselves without judgement: grace.

There are other things I love about Donald. Jeanie’s health has been poor in recent years as she lives with advanced stages of diabetes and their children and grandchildren have not had an easy road. Donald and Jeanie’s poise as they live through suffering has been a beacon.

In a funny way I love the left handed scrawl that Donald prefers to execute with a blue felt tip pen. I’d probably love it more if I could read it.

Donald, if there were more people who shared your poise and grace the world would be a very different and better place to live. I thank you deeply for offering me friendship and companionship on the journey to appreciate beauty, truth and goodness.

Brett Inder: the intelligent radical

It was when I was learning Japanese script in the early 80s that I understood the concept of a radical for the first time. I had previously misunderstood the idea of radical as being ‘progressive’ or ‘different’. Not so, in fact the contrary. Chinese characters, which form part of the Japanese script, can be organised into groups based on their foundations. These foundational or source elements I learned were called radicals. And so I understood that radical has to do with the ‘fundamental nature of something’. (go look it up and you’ll see)

The common usage of the word has apparently come about due to the tendency of people to lose sight of original intents and purposes; the radical is therefore someone who reminds people of the fundamentals. Those familiar with the Judeo-Christian story will recognise the prophetic tradition here.

interviewing women in Willowvale, Eastern Cape

Brett is a striking model of a true radical. I got to know him when I moved to Melbourne in the mid 80s when we shared a house along with our mate Jim. Brett was always full of mental energy and I found myself drawn into meaningful discussions about how to live with integrity in a whole new way. He was renowned among those who knew him for his machine-like approach to life – which was an attempt I think to capture his no-nonsense, consistency, coupled with extraordinary intelligence and productivity.

In simplistic terms, if we were going to map people on a style – substance continuum, Brett would be off the scale up the substance end. Which is not to comment particularly about his ‘style’, although family and friends love to jibe about the jumpers he wears for seemingly decades and I do recall a pair of runners that he kept together with tape for a comical period of time. Which would not be so startling if his vocational home was in a grass roots community organisation. But he is Professor Brett Inder, Head of Econometrics at one of Australia’s leading universities. For Brett, his expertise in economics is a means to making the world a more just place. (talking about equal opportunity and diversity at Uni)

While many people discuss fantasies of communal living, Brett and Jenny just did it. They purchased a house across the road from the Uni and over time managed to secure the use of 2 or 3 more around them. Their home is always open and when you drop around to visit there are always other people around, including (foster) children in addition to their own. When Brett got interested in Fair Trade and joined the People for Fair Trade Collective, their garage became a warehouse for tea and coffee, purchased directly from farmers for distribution to people in Melbourne committed to helping to offer a better deal for coffee growers.

Brett has always shunned a public profile. However on October 21^st 2002 he found himself in the media spotlight when he helped to restrain a student who had taken a gun into class, opened fire killing two and injuring seven others. The bravery and courage expressed through that act is entirely consistent with Brett’s way of life.

Mate, you have been a profound inspiration for me. Your ability to see and hear the essence of what matters through the noise of the crowd is a rare thing. There are any number of people whose identity is wrapped up in radicalism. But you are a model of someone who seems to grasp the substance of the issue irrespective of whether there is a community of support around it. My life is always richer having ‘chewed the fat with you’. Your generosity and friendship have been a treasure through time.

Thanks.