The Statue of Liberty As Ishta Dev
Weekly Column By Sharon Salzberg for On Being Blog
Published November 23rd, 2015
I saw the Statue of Liberty as affirmation that there was a place for everyone and, therefore, a place for me. She wanted and welcomed, even those who weren’t wanted anywhere else. She is a woman bearing light. She was my first symbol of bottomless compassion. I think about what it must have been like to leave the known world behind, to be desperate enough or adventurous enough or frightened enough to journey far, to begin a new life in a new land. I think about what it must have been like to see her, standing on her island in the New York City harbor, welcoming, saying: You also count. You matter. There is a place for you.
Sharon Salzberg
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About On Being with Krista Tippett
On Being is a Peabody Award-winning public radio conversation and podcast, a Webby Award-winning website and online exploration, a publisher and public event convener. On Being opens up the animating questions at the center of human life: What does it mean to be human, and how do we want to live? On Being airs on more than 330 public radio stations across the U.S., distributed by American Public Media. The podcast reaches a global audience via SoundCloud.
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