Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, June 29, 2010

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single [person]
contemplates it, bearing within .. the image of a cathedral.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author [“The Velveteen Rabbit”]
born on this date, 1900, in Lyon, France


Some people just have, or create, the best metaphors! Rock pile to cathedral – or mosque or temple or whatever. Love it!

Once, I was sitting meditating and gazing about in Ely Cathedral, a “pile” I like. One of the cathedral clergy came by and said, “Are you enjoying the beauty of our cathedral?” I remember saying – and God knows why! – “Yes – and the human soul it represents.” God I can be icky pious! But I hope I’ve gotten better as I’ve gotten older.

Each of us can be thought of as a “pile of rocks” when we start off in Life. But someone – our mother or father hopefully, or a teacher or a friend of relative, or a “God” we are shown – looks at us and sees a “cathedral”. A being of great beauty and mystery and innate value.

I would say that any “great” society – let alone any great religion - would be one that holds this vision of each human being and works to shape and maintain it.

I’ve been “lucky”. I know myself to be a “cathedral”.

I hope you do too.

Brian+