[Last time Ari was local, he shared about a t-shirt.  Now, it is his kurta that is creating ripples. :) A sweet note from him below that was captured across the ServiceSpace wires. --Sheetal]

I'd like to share a small story from my evening that reminds me of the magic of ServiceSpace.

Yesterday, I was at an event there were 500+ people. An award was going to senator Corey Booker, who is as close to someone one could find exemplifying ServiceSpace values in the US Congress. (Here's a video of a commencement address, if you don't know him.)

During dinner he was going around to many of the tables saying hello. I was wearing Indian formal clothing I was gifted by Neerad-bhai while I was at Gandhi 3.0 three months ago. I used the opportunity to connect with senator Booker about the message of Gandhi, who as it turns out was his inspiration for initially becoming vegetarian.

About an hour latter he spoke and, in receiving his award, he told this story below about Gandhi that referenced our very brief conversation as his inspiration to share....

As Gandhi stepped aboard a train one day, one of his shoes slipped off and landed on the track. He was unable to retrieve it as the train started rolling. To the amazement of his companions, Gandhi calmly took off his other shoe and threw it back along the track to land close to the first shoe. Asked by a fellow passenger why he did that, Gandhi replied, 'the poor man who finds the shoe lying on the track will now have a pair he can use.'

The magic for me is that this generous gift from Neerdad aka Po I was wearing, in some non-linear way, inclined Sen. Booker and I to connect with one another about something more meaningful then can normally be accessed during a two minute conversation which somehow led this highly influential person to share this inspired message to ever more people. I now am going to consider what I was meant to learn from this story about Gandhi, but I think it has something to do with turning what seems like losses into opportunities to live generously.

Wishing you each the causes and conditions for the highest happiness. :)