i have been thinking of sacrifice and devotion. are they one and the same?
and just now i wrote a friend about the need to massage the message of A Great Purge into a person's psyche. You can't just throw the fact of pain in someone's face and expect them to bear their chest to the blade in the name of balance. Even sages like Yoda chose exile before sacrifice. How devoted is he, truly, to his religion?
Its the pain of the individual, the only pain we ever know, that kept Yoda wishing for life. Redemption. Vengeance. Balance is God's domain, all others are visitors, scraping one foot on another, looking for a place to sit thats out of the way, munching on crackers waiting for Grampa God to wander off into his study so they can finally ... just ... leave.
Balance is not our fruit. In fact, imbalance is our sustenance. Be it culturally, socially, academically or financially. If all was good in the force, we would all glow. Where is the majesty in that? In the land of the blind the one eyed man is an outcast. In an imbalanced world, balance is the realm of the purged.
The sage that conquered his ego and found balance with God finally descended from his cave and while walking through the streets was bumped by a stranger.
"Fool! Don't you know who I am?"
2 comments:
Please call the SCMP or reply to emails in your inbox from Daniel Jeffreys and Mark Footer in HK
Are sacrifice and devotion one and the same? Sacrifice involves giving up something, or everything of yourself for a greater cause or being. Does this mean that the greater cause or being involves a greater love or is it a greater devotion? Devotion, on the other hand, involves some kind of a vow or commitment. But is this a distinction without a difference?
Sacrifice and devotion, all based in a deep well of love and enveloping grace, brings my firstborn closer to me every minute as I write. In the hour of another's need, altruism supersedes, love comes forth-instantly, overflowing and without question. Such is love - no concern for whether it is devotion or sacrifice - just love born of love - steadily coming closer, mile after mile of warm ocean water. She comes, leaving her love, the big man who also has great love, to be at my side.
Now, I wish you such love in all of your life. You know my whole family, daughter on the bluff, and have met me only through the heart. Each meeting has been special, including the times when I did not write. Write, and write some more. It is your gift, sometimes your sacrifice, but it touches bases with other people. The ability to touch bases with another is the heart and soul of human understanding. I wish you peace in all of your journeys.
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