Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Knowledge

Now that I know
How passion warms little
Of flesh in the mould,
And treasure is brittle,--

I'll lie here and learn
How, over their ground
Trees make a long shadow
And a light sound.

Louise Bogan, poet, born
on this date, 1897, in Maine


I’m for passion. Intellectual, sexual ….. though I’m not sure about emotional. However, I agree with Louise Bogan that, in the end, “passion warms little”, seen on a scale of what is ultimately freeing in Life ….. and I am big on Freedom, appropriately understood.

Treasure. Jesus (and others) nailed that one. “Things” lived with can bring pleasure and beauty and usefulness. Unless we burden them with power they do not have. They offer no ultimate meaning or self-worth.

My mind is buzzing, because I can see many aspects of the Tree as a metaphor. One is: a Tree is a fine and simple metaphor for Authenticity. And while it may be difficult to define “authentic”, let alone achieve some measure of it, I like the idea that an authentic person casts a “long shadow” in the World – not intentionally but intrinsically. To the shadow of such a person many will come for rest and shelter, like beautiful cows under a tree in a sunny field.

And I like the idea that an authentic person has no need to make a loud sound in the World. The “sound” of authenticity is “light”. It welcomes but does not impose. It gives me a deeper understanding of words attributed to Jesus: “My yoke is easy and my burden light”.

In this World, it is important I think, as early as we can, to “lie here and learn how”.

Brian+