In our fear-driven haste to work hard, attain material trappings, and relentlessly pursue financial “security”—so that, someday, somewhere, we may actually live without “worry”—we miss the simple delights of being alive now. Do we share, with our children, the joyful spirit of William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence”—as well as the playful exuberance of worldwide Trickster myths? Or do we “share” our worries about insurance premiums, mortgage payments, college tuition — and their future “careers”? In spite of “relationship problems,” do we savor the earthy delights of “warm-hearted sex” (to paraphrase Lady Chatterley’s lover)? Or do we worry about the mechanics of sexual “performance”?Read the rest of this April 23 Dissident Voice article by William Manson here.
We will die, soon or later, that’s certain enough. But will we ever know how to live?
Comment: My friend and mentor Art Neal told me almost a decade ago that the greatest treasure in life is the time you have to yourself: the time to think, to love, to find meaning and to live freely.
Inside of that time there is no time to perseverate about adding more material or things to your life.
For most of the time that I spent in the classroom I held his words close to my being. Each lesson taught and each lesson learned reinforced his simple resistance not to become too embroiled in the stuff of life as chartered by artificial markers.
I think Thoreau in his ecological meditation "Walden" must have arrived at the same truth when he reflected upon the foolishness of a man moving a huge boulder from one side of a street to another to symbolize a day's work.
What is the value of work that has no inherent meaning beyond the symbolism of being busy he asked?
Nothing is the answer.
A life spent learning that lesson is perhaps the greatest work that inevitably escapes just about most of us.
Onward!
No comments:
Post a Comment