Think about the characteristics of a person that cause you to respect them. It could be their persistence, their reliability; durability, compassion, or any number of other descriptions which present an impression that sticks with you, and in turn creates the story of the person.
We all have a story. Some of us lead or have led simple lives, yet the real story is deep and complex. As we move from the cradle to the stone, we narrow our attention to not only what matters to us, but what has been reflected back from others as “a good trait.”
The things that cause us to keep on track and avoid wandering too far into the world of self-consumption (difficult to do when this centeredness tends to isolate us into making decisions that feed us and us only), is a narrow mirror of what others return to us as a positive or useful characteristic.
Even though this opinion of ourselves is driven by others, it none the less supports the argument that we are in fact social-creatures, relying upon the support of those impressions to keep from being eaten alive by our own self-need.
We need to give. It simply feels better than to take. In the end our lives need to be balanced. Think about it. He was thinking himself about how the Native Americans, once living on this land below his feet as he writes, considered this balanced living essential to move on to the after-life.
In recent hours he was struck by the words of another who knew his mother enough to use a term to describe her that was so eloquent and true…a description that reflected how before her end she had achieved this balance he speaks of.... living close to the ground...in touch with her own death..…she simply said….”your mother was an Indian.”
Please feel free to e-mail a comment to chasingthecenterline@gmail.com
