 Dr. Wolfgang Ziegler, University of Freiburg, Germany. Rotary Club Ammersee,
Germany; Writer, researcher for Rotary Global History Fellowship. He was
awarded the "Ches Perry" Fellowship by the Rotary Club of Chicago.
Dr. Ziegler continues to contribute to this Original archive of
history. His archive contributions are dated and listed on his
historian's
page. His philosophy contributions are also listed there,
under philosophy and dated.
“Mr. Paul P. Harris occupies an almost unique
position among leaders of men, in that the movement which he initiated in
the city of Chicago in 1905 has, within his own life-time, become a
world-wide force of impressive scope and power. Seldom does the founder of
an organization live to see his dreams fulfilled within the span of a single
generation. The extraordinarily rapid growth of Rotary throughout the world
is a phenomenon the history of which, when it is finally written, will be
fascinating.”
|
|
Dear
John,
Now back to
our beloved Rotary.
1.
The past:
Paul Harris became a legend, which is bad, because legends tend to
fade from memory. Even worse, some people still want to make him a
sort of a saint. “But nothing would have been further from his
sincerest desire” (Ruggles,
The Rotarian, March 1952). Paul Harris should be kept alive as the
agreeable human being he was, who “just naturally liked people” and
“treasured and enjoyed his friends”.
2.
The
present: You
probably know the attached article of Paul Harris.
A “Rotary Philosophy” (Rational
Rotarianism?), easily understood by everybody, would help
today's Rotarians. Paul Harris wrote a lot about philosophy, and
there was even a Committee on Philosophy and Education as early as
1915, but this will be an “opus major”.
3.
The
Future:
“Rotary is
based on three great principles: brotherly love, relief, and truth.
Over the years, brotherly love and relief have been so stressed that
Rotary is in serious danger of becoming primarily a social and
charitable organization. Truth, the most difficult principle to
recognize and thus the most difficult to archive, has long been
neglected. […] that the alpha and omega of Rotary is not the
repetition of the ritual nor the safeguarding of secrets, but the
regeneration of Rotarians.
This book* implores the reader to learn to see in Rotary something
more than a parochial system enjoining elementary morality,
performing perfunctory and insignificant rites, and serving as an
agreeable accessory to social life. The greater system of spiritual
doctrine contained in Rotary is strongly emphasized”.
*Walter L.
Wilmhurst, 1867 “The Meaning of Masonry”. This was simple: I
only exchanged “Masonry” with “Rotary”. We should make some effort
in the future, to “emphasize the greater system of spiritual
doctrine contained in Rotary”, or Rotary will continue to be not
more than “an agreeable accessory to social life”.
Sincerely,
Wolfgang
1 February 2005 |
