“The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the State but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.” – Albert Einstein, The World as I See It
As you move through the ticking moments of your life, what in reflection has actualized your being adding creativity, balance, harmony and gratitude to your palette of meaningful existence? No, not a trick question. Your personal response may surprise you, and then again this present consciousness may have never entered your thought process. This isen’t meant to be confusing as simply stated by Goethe, “What is the hardest of all? That which seems most simple to see with your eyes, what is before your eyes.”
It doesn’t make a difference what your “bio” contains or how “connected” you are with the world. Of course, in some circles ”being connected” will get you first class priority seating on an airline of your choice, a prestigious table at a coveted restaurant in your favorite global city anywhere in the world, and lest we not forget . . . the gold standard circle club suite in a luxurious five star hotel with amenities that go on for days. Ah yes, this is pretty heady stuff . . . really? The words of Voltaire are quite poignant . . . “It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.”
We are surrounded by legions of those whose “bios” should read bonded, certified and licensed “prostidigitators. . .” you guessed it “magicians!” This is nothing new, just the on-going process of man’s continuing evolvement taking the ususal twists and turns of growth. Benjamin Franklin had an interesting observation on this type of folly . . . “Trickery and treachery are the practices of fools that have not the wits enough to be honest.”
Honesty begins from within, first with ourselves, then present conscious awareness followed by realized authenticity practiced in every moment of every day through sentient beings embracing grace, dignity, integrity, character and courage. We don’t have all the time in the world to “get it.” Dispell that illusion, and cogitate on the words of Elisabeth Kubler Ross . . . “Watching a peaceful death of a human being reminds us of a falling star; one of a million lights in a vast sky that flares up for a brief moment only to disappear into the endless night forever.” When you disappear into the endless night forever, and we all will . . . how luminnous will be your star be which was ignited by your life? JLR