” There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” Ernest Hemingway
This morning, as I lean against my Lighthouse, I look not in vain to see my vanity. The fog blanketing me clearly allows my past to be easily seen. I need to hear the fog horn and buoy chime of a hymn to clear my rocky past. My personal goal- humility.
I believe humility will allow my intuition and common sense to balance out the self-serving demands of my ego. I find my exercise of reflection ironic. Exercise demands motion, reflection and inner travel demands fog to embrace and hide the distraction of motion.
My personal journey is enhanced by Yeats. “The world from which the stories came lies still within the astral mists…” The Irish poet also opined, “The world is full of magic things waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”
The fog of reflection is my tool to help pry open my third eye of intuition.
Dante, midway through his journey of life, found himself “in a dark wood, where the right way was lost.” In the Divine Comedy Dante’s guide is the pastoral poet Virgil who lived in ancient Rome over twelve hundred years before. Virgil helps guide Dante through Hell and Purgatory. If I remember correctly, Beatrice takes over as Dante transcends from Fire to Paradise. Beatrice, who died young, is noted as a passionate early love of Dante. At the risk of letting my vanity appear to be egocentric here, my poet guides are many as my posts identify, but my Beatrice guiding me on this personal journey is not identified in my posts current or past. But rest assured, her courage, strength, compassion and unconditional love never waivers no matter the battle.
The buoy chime of a hymn is louder now; my reflection continues to sense my humility. Shakespeare’s Henry V reinforces my idea about humility, “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more: or close the wall up with our English dead. In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility.” Does humility, reflection, and humbleness hinder action against the narcissism rampart today. Narcissistic behavior that requires each of us NOT to be a victim or a martyr. Henry V answers, “But when the blasts of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the tyger;”
The tiger in me so easily stirred by what I see, hear, and witness has to be tamed otherwise my quest of personal enlightenment will be, at best, delayed, at worst, derailed.
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.” Albert Einstein
I love Einstein’s poetry here, so un-E=MC2’d. I humbly and with great respect do disagree with his conclusion. I believe death never closes our eyes!
I’ve reached my buoy chime of a hymn.
Thank you for reading,
Mark