"Why would anybody want to be a saint?"
"Become a saint and find out."
That question, to a Hindu guru, and his answer have stayed with me for many years. I am all for learning by experience, but the answer seemed so daunting as to be evasive.
Now I see that that answer, that invitation, need not mean a change of career or of faith or a commitment of years, let alone a lifetime. The first two definitions of "saint" in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd ed.) are "a holy person" and "a person who is exceptionally meek, charitable, patient, etc." One doesn't have to be religious to be a saint. One can try it for one day, an hour, or even, by some gesture (or restraint), a moment. Whenever we choose kindness for its own sake, we have the opportunity to learn why one would want to become a saint - again.
