Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, February 2, 2012

Better pass boldly into that other world,
in the full glory of some passion,
than fade and wither dismally with age.

James Joyce, Irish Author; he was born
on this date, 1882, in Dublin.


[ Today is 02022012: I love configurations like that!]

Well I remember having to read both “Ulysses” and “Finnegan’s Wake” at university. Hopeless. I didn’t “get” a bit of it! It really annoyed me, as I thought of myself as a perfectly intelligent person. Good for the humility though! And I have to chuckle that when I decided a few years ago to re-read Finnegan’s Wake, I still couldn’t understand it! But, I have to say the same thing about most of the poems in the New Yorker!

I think that most of the great spiritual leaders had a passion. Jesus passed “boldly into that other world” refusing to deny the centrality of Love and compromise. The Buddha did the same, holding steadfastly to the passion of Enlightenment and simplicity. Martin Luther King changes America, living his passion for freedom in the knowledge that he might die for it. There have been countless such people in history, and they have blessed and enriched human existence ….. and shown us the way to Live.

I guess the message is: Each of us is given to gift of a Passion, which, if we embrace it, will bless the World.

What a superb thought!

Brian+