0 votes | Log on to vote
Legacy of Courage: The Life of Ola Pawlowska
Appeared: 03/06/2009
Legacy of Courage: The Life of Ola Pawlowska, Knight of Bahá'u'lláh. Suzanne Schuurman. 2008, George Ronald.
In 1952, Shoghi Effendi launched a plan he called the "Ten Year Crusade" to facilitate an organized expansion of the Bahá'í Faith around the world, culminating in the first election of the Universal House of Justice. As part of this plan, a large number of "virgin territories" where the Bahá'í Faith was as yet unknown were identified as goals. To any Bahá'í who would relocate to those areas with the purpose of teaching the Bahá'í Faith, he gave the title "Knight of Bahá'u'lláh". Two hundred fifty two Bahá'ís answered the call. One of them was Ola Pawlowska, a Polish woman who with her daughter had escaped the carnage of World War II and settled in Canada.
Legacy of Courage is Ola's life as recounted by her daughter. I am not much of a student of biographies, but it seems to me that Schuurman has done an admirable job of what must be two huge potential pitfalls threatening such projects. On the one hand, she has not succumbed to the temptation to idolize her mother, either as her mother or as a stalwart Bahá'í who rendered great services over many years, and on the other she has not gone to the other extreme of dwelling excessively on the inevitable failings that any human being will display over the course of a lifetime. The result is a portrait of a real woman, someone we can readily imagine is one of our own friends or family members.
In terms of life story, the parts of this book I found most engaging were those detailing Ola's early life in Poland and her encounters with both World Wars. Born to a titled family and brought up in the aristocracy, she nevertheless suffered from family division and material loss. Her insights on her encounter with the Bahá'í Faith, as revealed in her letters, are likewise illuminating. But upon her arrival in Africa these vanish in favor of a marathon of Bahá'í activity: teaching, assisting blossoming communities and Local Spiritual Assemblies, protecting Bahá'ís and communities from the vicissitudes of Africa's changing political and religious landscape, and always more teaching. While this is no doubt what Ola's life looked like during that time, it feels like a video on fast forward, and we are hard pressed to keep up. This may be unavoidable, given that most information the author would have had from this time period came from Ola's letters themselves, and what would she have had foremost in her mind? Right.
That said, it would have been interesting had it been possible to gain a bit more insight into Ola's thoughts and feelings about her activities. Some of the best moments in her story come when she speaks of such matters. She was an avid reader, for example, and sometimes laments that her interest in the affairs of the world keeps her from being fully devoted to serving Bahá'u'lláh. I find this to be a compelling revelation, as it mirrors what I imagine a lot of us must feel about our own lives.
Ola's story as told by her daughter is, in other words, not just biography but inspiration. It can help us to come to grips with our own sense of unworthiness and inability, to see that the potential for greatness is within us all. The difference between an Ola Pawlowska and you or I might not be that great, after all. The key ingredient that enabled Ola to attain the heights of service she achieved is the one summed up in the title of the book: she had the courage to live the convictions of her heart. Perhaps through this book she is telling us that we can, too.
Email Dale E. Lehman about "Legacy of Courage: The Life of Ola Pawlowska"
Forum & Chat