A Mighty Heart

Dear Mariane

I trust this note of mine finds Adam and yourself doing well.

I'm not sure if I should ascribe my reading A Mighty Heart on Danny's birthday to an act of coincidence!

Every once a while, there come people, who call upon themselves, mustering unseen courage, to show the world the elements of truth and choose to be the exponents of this powerful virtue! One can gather in such an illustrious league the names of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, who lost their lives while relentlessly pursuing the Godly mission of upholding the values of truth and educating the world about it.

I believe Danny is part of this list of people-extraordinaire, someone who saw it as his job, not any extraordinary mission, to bridge a gap between fiercely opposing cultures and their people.

Your day by day account moved me a great deal while making me recall the early days of 2002 when I relied on the BBC to bring me the news of Danny’s release, which I believed was imminent. Extremely pained by this senseless killing, I comforted myself in the belief that heaven is certainly a better place, now that he’s gone up there!

Above all, he was himself, doing what he did best and martyred himself in the tedious and painful process of constantly demonstrating unity and togetherness to a world that calls itself civilized yet remains glaringly devoid of peace or the very understanding of it!

Like the millions of those who have read and understood the courage and sacrifice of A Mighty Heart, I want you to know how grateful I am to you for bringing this chilling account for me to read, which under ordinary circumstances would have been safely cast away in a mourning mind!

Today, we continue to celebrate Danny's life as an epic moment in history, one that has had many good associations and causes attached to it, and in doing so emphatically tell the perpetrators of terror that while good people and their bodies can be destroyed by their meaningless massacres in the name of religion - not once, ever, can they destroy the will of the spirit which is higher than any cause or effect!

Nothing will give me more pleasure than to see Adam grow up to fulfill his father's prophecy of being able to change the world!

I pray that you, Adam, Danny's family, friends and colleagues find renewed courage and strength to further your lives in living the legacy Danny left behind.

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

Rakesh

Footnotes:

The Daniel Pearl Foundation