Will I Be Hated For This?
Oct. 21st, 2011 05:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cedar_groveFrom The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have.
We are in moments pure and ageless as light, and with the very next breath, we drop things or bruise the treasures of a lifetime. We need to soothe ourselves, not blame ourselves.
It is the essential duality in nature, perhaps, that has us gentle one moment and bullish in the next… and I would argue that we need neither to soothe, nor to blame ourselves, simply accept what is – essential nature.
That said, we also don't need ride roughshod over life, and not abrogate responsibility for actually behaving in a way that leans more toward the pure ageless light part, and less toward the clumsy hurt of treasures. I'll put that in perspective shall I, and hold up my hand and say here and now, that while I was sad that someone died – I did not see what all the fuss was about when Mr Jobs passed. Yes, he did some remarkable things in his life… advanced technology (oh, and made a lot of money doing it), and I'm sure he did other good things in his life, but strip everything away, and just like you or I, he was just another human being… along with all the other human beings that have died and are still dying. It's perhaps human nature to mourn the loss of one public figure and ignore the deaths of many, but that doesn't make it right… there's a lot about human nature that's not. I struggle with that one – I really do.
There was this thing I saw on Facebook the other day, where it had a split-panel picture. One side had a picture of Steve Jobs, the other had a picture of lots of young, starving children from a third world country. The caption was very pointed. On the one side it said something like, "one person dies, and the whole world is in mourning" on the other side it said, "thousands of people die and no one cares." I think the language was stronger than that, but that's the gist of it anyway… it kind of summed up how I feel, in general, about such things. Like I said, I'm sure he was a terrific guy, maybe a genius and all the rest of that, even though I didn't much care for his products, but… see the big picture folks.
We are rare, not perfect.
We are in moments pure and ageless as light, and with the very next breath, we drop things or bruise the treasures of a lifetime. We need to soothe ourselves, not blame ourselves.
It is the essential duality in nature, perhaps, that has us gentle one moment and bullish in the next… and I would argue that we need neither to soothe, nor to blame ourselves, simply accept what is – essential nature.
That said, we also don't need ride roughshod over life, and not abrogate responsibility for actually behaving in a way that leans more toward the pure ageless light part, and less toward the clumsy hurt of treasures. I'll put that in perspective shall I, and hold up my hand and say here and now, that while I was sad that someone died – I did not see what all the fuss was about when Mr Jobs passed. Yes, he did some remarkable things in his life… advanced technology (oh, and made a lot of money doing it), and I'm sure he did other good things in his life, but strip everything away, and just like you or I, he was just another human being… along with all the other human beings that have died and are still dying. It's perhaps human nature to mourn the loss of one public figure and ignore the deaths of many, but that doesn't make it right… there's a lot about human nature that's not. I struggle with that one – I really do.
There was this thing I saw on Facebook the other day, where it had a split-panel picture. One side had a picture of Steve Jobs, the other had a picture of lots of young, starving children from a third world country. The caption was very pointed. On the one side it said something like, "one person dies, and the whole world is in mourning" on the other side it said, "thousands of people die and no one cares." I think the language was stronger than that, but that's the gist of it anyway… it kind of summed up how I feel, in general, about such things. Like I said, I'm sure he was a terrific guy, maybe a genius and all the rest of that, even though I didn't much care for his products, but… see the big picture folks.
