Sarah Schnitker

I am also a huge fan of Gandhi and his work and all the other amazing work inspired around the world.

I think he's right that violence is most often caused by impatience, that we want things to happen in a certain way and in a certain timeframe.

And human beings can't always be put on a clock, and especially not our own clock in the way we would like things to happen.

And as societies over kind of history, when we look back, when they've resorted to violence, it's often begotten more violence.

And that instead, the really significant and long lasting movements that lead to peace and prosperity for all members of a society have recognized that impatience is not the answer.

And then instead, we need to really consider the rights and desires of other human beings as equal to our own.

And that we need to take routes of persuasion and nonviolent protest and nonviolent action.

That this is when we actually see a society that is peaceful, that respects the rights of all people, and that really is typified by love.

and by justice, and is what many of us would want to live in, what we would call a society that allows people to live the good life.

And so I know in my own life, I often feel the temptation to push people and to kind of enact my own will, even not with physical violence, but with other forms of kind of pushing and when each of us can recognize that

patience is a gift we give, and it's a gift that comes back and benefits us in our relationships and in our society, I think really can lead to the kind of flourishing society, flourishing life all of us desire.

What we see is that we are patient with those we love, and we begin to love

those to whom we are patient, that patience is sometimes the first step.

And when we allow the person the space to be who they are, we actually can start to appreciate who they are and begin to feel compassion and love, especially when we're talking about people who disagree with us, who we might consider our enemies.

Patience can help

to cultivate a stance towards others that allows us to remember they are human beings as well, and not just our enemies, our opponents, but part of our society and valuable contributors, even if we disagree with them.

Thank you for having me, Shankar.

It's been a real pleasure.