Download as pdf - Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation
Download as pdf - Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation
Download as pdf - Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
the ethics of dag hammarskjöld<br />
servant, h<strong>as</strong> most certainly not lost a single bit of its relevance<br />
in the 21st century or for the 21st century. An apocryphal<br />
saying of Martin Luther’s – it is not found anywhere in the<br />
more than 100 volumes of his collected works – runs like<br />
this: ‘If I knew that this world w<strong>as</strong> going to perish tomorrow,<br />
today I would still have planted an apple tree in my garden.’<br />
Apocryphal sayings may convey the core message of an author<br />
just <strong>as</strong> well <strong>as</strong> the genuine ones – sometimes even better.<br />
If I am justified in counting <strong>Dag</strong> <strong>Hammarskjöld</strong> among the<br />
close heirs of the spiritual legacy of Martin Luther, we might<br />
just <strong>as</strong> well attribute the apocryphal saying to him and keep<br />
it in mind <strong>as</strong> part of his legacy.<br />
In any c<strong>as</strong>e: the picture of the apple tree in the garden, planted<br />
on the eve before the Day of Judgment is most certainly<br />
among the pictures worth being kept in mind – in any mind<br />
which is still striving to remain sound.<br />
37
Change language