0419 Tribute To A Listening Man (George Steiner)

The TV studio set for a prestige production of the sort that wins renewed network contracts if not viewers, late on Sunday night: the subject, a weekly series on The History of Christianity - worthy discussion leader, impressive panel mingling ecclesiastical robes of a glowing spectrum of faiths with the open-necked, for open-minded, dress-down of young freethinkers, but respectful of their elders, with it; subtle lighting on the semi-circular panel and the background, tastefully designed with hints of the history of otherworldliness and among the assembled voices of faith and reason in their polite battle, the great intellectual guru of the Western world himself – would his searing intellect, his daunting global dimensions of mind, dominate this gathering? Life can have its glorious surprises even on a dozy, precious-last-weekend-hours of a Sunday night – George said his piece, then, challenged by the other speakers, sat there listening: as if, without a resistant, reacting, or self-regarding thought in his head – listened rapt in full attention, as if expecting to listen to a further, deeper truth from those who argued against him – his face benign, almost smiling I have never seen such intellectual humility – as if, way, way beyond the personal, a mind was listening constantly, for truth, to truth itself.. listening to that listening, I felt proud to be a human being.