“Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.”<\/p>\n
– Albert Schweitzer<\/p>\n
Thursday was Albert Schweitzer’s<\/a> birthday and chances are, if you’re under age 40, you have absolutely no idea who I’m talking about.<\/p>\n Not too long ago, Schweitzer was a household name.\u00c2\u00a0 A globally respected, Nobel-honored physician and humanitarian, Schweitzer was so well-known that even the Jungle Cruise ride in Disney World makes references to him.\u00c2\u00a0 (The ride schtick, while passing a waterfall: “… and here we see Schweitzer Falls, named for the famous doctor, Dr. Albert Falls…”)<\/p>\n At the dawn of the 20th century, Schweitzer was a musician and a theologian.\u00c2\u00a0 Through his early professional career, he specialized in Bach and wrote about the nature of Jesus Christ, putting emphasis on non-literal interpretations of the New Testament (controversial of that time).\u00c2\u00a0 Then, at age 30, much to the disappointment and frustration of his family and friends, he dropped it all to go to medical school.\u00c2\u00a0 In 1913, armed with medical degree and every penny he had, he and his wife traveled 200 miles (14 days by raft) upstream from the mouth of the Ogoou\u00c3\u00a9<\/a> River into the French colony of West Africa (in what is now Gabon).\u00c2\u00a0 There, in Lambar\u00c3\u00a9n\u00c3\u00a9<\/a>, a spot where several tributaries combined into the river, Schweitzer built a hospital in a old chicken coop.<\/p>\n The rest of his life involved much of the same.\u00c2\u00a0 Schweitzer toured Europe playing concerts to raise funds for his hospital and then went back to care for the patients who came to the facility.\u00c2\u00a0 He continued to write as well, searching for a philosophy that unified all types of people. \u00c2\u00a0 Eventually his personal philosophy (which he considered to be his greatest contribution to humanity) hit upon the idea of “Reverence for Life” (“Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben<\/em>“).\u00c2\u00a0 (“Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life.”)\u00c2\u00a0 He felt that modern times, characterized by World Wars and hate and weapons, had lost it’s ethical foundation.\u00c2\u00a0 And that the universal principle uniting us was that we simply seek to live.\u00c2\u00a0 Because of this universal experience, Schweitzer argued, our respect for life leads us into service for the lives of those around us.\u00c2\u00a0 He felt that showing respect for life by serving others to fulfill their own was not only the highest calling for all humanity, but the one true way people could find peace and happiness.\u00c2\u00a0 (“One thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.”)<\/p>\n With colleagues Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russel, Schweitzer was a harsh critic of nuclear testing and nuclear weapons.\u00c2\u00a0 In 1952, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the speech he gave at that ceremony, “The Problem of Peace<\/a>” is still considered one of the greatest speeches ever delivered.<\/p>\n What a shame that Schweitzer’s teachings, philosophies, and examples have fallen into pages of history.<\/p>\n The man wasn’t perfect.\u00c2\u00a0 And he continually argued that he wasn’t anything special or unique (“a man doesn’t have to be an angel to be a saint”)… just someone who decided to do something and did it.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s an example from which I personally draw a lot of inspiration.\u00c2\u00a0 (“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”)\u00c2\u00a0 And one that I think could do much of the same for others.<\/p>\n “You don’t live in a world all alone.\u00c2\u00a0 Your brothers are here, too.”<\/p>\n —-<\/p>\n The hospital built in 1956 in Deschampelles, Haiti, and named after Albert Schweitzer is the one I mentioned in the previous post.\u00c2\u00a0 This weekend, it became more clear that this facility appears, in fact, to be the closest facility to Port-au-Prince with surgical capabilities<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 You can keep track of how they are handling the deluge of patients at the HAS blog<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 The website<\/a> is equipped to accept donations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.” – Albert Schweitzer Thursday was Albert Schweitzer’s birthday and chances are, if you’re under age 40, you have absolutely no idea who I’m talking about. Not too long ago, Schweitzer was a household name.\u00c2\u00a0 A globally respected, Nobel-honored physician and humanitarian, Schweitzer was so well-known that even the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[178],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5819"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5819"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5822,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5819\/revisions\/5822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}