"What needs eradicating is the evil in man, not man himself." - Etty Helliesum

Hey guys,

I released the Lord Bird ep! More below.

But first:

I found this extract in Marshall B. Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication which I highly recommend for anyone who is having difficulty in communicating in any type of relationship. E.g. I feel like my partner doesn't care about me. Or my son won't listen to me. Or this person at work is making my life miserable. etc. (Or even, I'm at war with another country and we can't seem to come to a peace agreement.) Rosenberg is a dream podcast guest... sadly he is no longer with us.

Rather than share any of Marshall's communication strategies today I just wanted to share that passage. I am feeling very sensitive to a perceived lack of compassion in the culture right now... If Etty can feel compassion towards a Gestapo officer maybe we can feel compassion towards someone whose opinions on current affairs don't align with ours? Or someone whose life choices we don't agree with?

(Might be a stretch, but thought it was worth a shot...)

P.S. Who was Etty?
From the blurb of her published complete letters and diaries:

In the midst of the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust, Etty's writings reveal a young Jewish woman who celebrated life and remained an undaunted example of courage, sympathy, and compassion.

Etty began her diary in 1941, nine months after Hitler invaded her home country of the Netherlands. The record she kept for the next two years contains arresting personal reflections and chronicles her intellectual and spiritual development. Letters that she wrote to friends during her internment at the Westerbork transit camp poignantly describe the day-to-day horrors that the Jewish prisoners faced. Etty's courage and determination remained strong, however, allowing her to rise above the hate around her and express her undying faith in humanity. As she wrote in her last letter, thrown from the train that took her to her death at Auschwitz, "We left the camp singing."

Right onto this week's ep.

This week on Growing Up with Delia Burgess​
Ep. 69 - Lord Bird: founder of the Big Issue
​John Anthony Bird, Baron Bird, MBE is a British social entrepreneur and life peer in the House of Lords. He is best known as the co-founder of The Big Issue, a magazine sold by street vendors who are homeless or vulnerably-housed.

Bird was born in 1946 in a Notting Hill slum to a poor London Irish family. He became homeless at age of five, spent time in an orphanage, in young offenders institutions and prison during his youth.

In 1991, Bird launched The Big Issue with Gordon Roddick, co-founder of The Body Shop.

His work as a Crossbencher focuses on dismantling the root causes of poverty in the UK, with an emphasis on the well-being of future generations, early intervention and prevention.

He’s all about a hand up, not a hand out. He wants the poor to escape poverty, not just be made slightly more comfortable by “moralising do gooders.” Hopefully I can help him on his mission...

​xx Delia

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