Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Be Your Note

Remember the lips where wind-breath
originated, and let your note be clear.

Don’t try to end it.
Be your note.

I’ll show you how it’s enough.
Go up on the roof at night
in this city of the soul.

Rumi says: Let everyone climb on their roofs
and sing their notes.

Sing loud!

Rumi, Sufi poet


I’m always a little queasy about all this “I” stuff. Oh, I recognize the “importance of the individual”. Our “note” – of each one of us – is ontologically important. But I am – religiously – a “catholic” in the Anglican tradition. All this “I” stuff is too Protestant. No, I don’t in any way want to demean the importance of the Individual. But I insist that that must be integrated into the Whole.

Rumi says:

Let everyone climb on their roofs
and sing their notes.

Not to isolate us in our uniqueness. But to help each one of us know and stand firm in our individuality. And THEN to contribute to the Whole, freely, generously, unafraid of any personal diminution. This is the “best of both Worlds”.

It’s important to discover our Note, and to sing our note. But it’s more important then to add to the beauty of the Whole.