5
Feb
I’ve allowed myself to be seduced by things that glitter along the path, not fully realizing that not all things that glitter are gold.
4
Feb
Where are you headed and how will you get there? And what does it matter in the end, the prince and the pauper travel different roads to reach the same end, buried six feet beneath cold earth, food for the worms and a silent eternity.
This hit me smack dead between the eyes this morning. It’s a passage from a book by a Russian guy named Gurdjieff, who basically dedicated his life to answering the question: “What is the sense and significance of life on earth and human life in particular?” He developed a school of thought called The Fourth Way, but I won’t go into that just yet. The passage in question that caught my eye was this – and I’m paraphrasing here – life is like a river that forks into two branches. There is the involutionary branch and there is the evolutionary branch. People who take the involutionary branch essentially just spend their whole life meeting the basic requirements of nature. In polite speak they are like cattle and all of their energy is focused on eating, breeding, raising their young and being a good member of the herd. People who take the evolutionary branch embrace life. They are never satisfied with the status quo. They are always pushing the boundaries. Always looking for opportunities to grow. These people, according Gurdjieff, will have something extra in life that other people will never have.
Now the thing is I think there is no end to the amount of people who talk about personal growth, who talk about not living life in the comfort zone. I’ll hold my hand up and say that I too have been guilty of loitering in the comfort zone, which is why this passage probably struck such a cord with me this morning. Although I am a cautious man, I have never been known as someone who doesn’t like pushing the edge, but lately, I have been sitting back in the comfort zone with my feet up, six pack in hand, and the beer belly to show for it. But they say it only takes the right passage at the right time to change the course of your life.
Now where did I put my sword?
Barbara Ehrenreich has a new book out that addresses this issue called Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
I was having lunch with a friend the other day and somehow during the course of the meal the topic of death came up. I think it was because we both realized that we are getting old.
I’m 41 and she is 38. I said to her that if we both live to the average life expectancy of western society, which is between 77.5 and 80 years, then we are basically at the halfway mark and wether we want to admit it or not, we are on the downward slope of the inevitable march to the Big Sleep.
My friend said that this was a bleak way to look at it. I, however, think it’s a very motivational. It means to me that I better get busy doing the things I want to do in life.
But, my friend said, death is only the gateway to the next adventure.
“But what if it’s not?” I asked her. “What if when we die that is it…no more…nada…nothing!? What would that mean to you?” She said that she would start living it up, going wild, getting the most out of life.
Isn’t that strange? The thought that this life is just one phase of an eternal journey allows my friend to plod along letting one day bleed into the next, no sense of urgency about taking control of her life and living it how she would want to live it. Whereas the thought that this is it, one life to live – no afterlife, just daisies and dirt, fills her with a sense of urgency to “live it up.”
I’ll leave you with a statement and a question: this IS your life, the only life you will ever have, what are you going to do with it?
30
Sep
In times of reflection I sometimes turn to the Tao Te Ching (the book of The Way), written by Lao-Tzu, for guidance. Over these past several days my thinking has taken several synchronistic turns and I realize that the path I chose to walk several years ago is still the path I am on. It seems though that over the past 10 months I haven’t been walking the path, that I had rejected that which I had once embraced. But this morning I realized that I have just been taking a break, that I had only momentarily set my backpack aside to rest for a moment on the trail. And now I feel ready to continue on with a clearer sense of purpose and thought.
I opened the book of The Way and the passage I settled on was this:
He who stands on tiptoe
doesn’t stand firm.
He who rushes ahead
doesn’t go far.
He who tries to shine
dims his own light.
He who defines himself
can’t know who he really is.
He who has power over others
can’t empower himself.
He who clings to his work
will create nothing that endures.
If you want to accord with the Tao,
just do your job, then let go.
And even as I reflect on these words I can feel the weight of my pack settle on my shoulders, hips and back, and it feels good and right.
(This translation of the Tao Te Ching was taken from Stephen Mitchell.)
28
Sep
I am not a teacher only a fellow-traveller of whom you asked the way. I pointed ahead – ahead of myself as well as you. – George Benard Shaw
24
Sep
20
Sep
(picture, created in photoshop, click here to see a larger view)
“Reason is a whore, the greatest enemy that faith has.” – Martin Luther
Martin Luther didn’t have much good to say about reason. He likened reason to the Devil’s bride, a “pretty whore” that comes in and thinks she’s wise in what she says and that her words come from Providence. And indeed we treat reason like a whore using her to support our twisted logic and bolster our world view.
(Picture, thanks to the Flying Kiwi)
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, design a building, conn a ship, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve an equation, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly…specialization is for insects. – Robert A. Heinlein