Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, March 28, 2012

We're all just walking each other home.

Ram Dass

All of us make excuses for the way we live our lives. “The Devil made me do it”. “I can’t help it”. “It’s the way I was raised”. Etc, etc.

The Reality is, I think: We all have a choice. Perhaps not about every detail. And yes, perhaps there are heavy extenuating circumstances. But I still think that everyone has the opportunity to make choices, whether we choose to exercise it or not. The ability is an existential part of being a person.

Choice is true of Attitude, and of Principle, and of Belief. All this is what I’m pondering today.

“We’re all just walking each other home.”

In other words, we can choose, or at least try hard, to live by this simple guide ... or not. Dass’s words are a reflection of Jesus saying, “Love one another”. Of Confucius saying “Do not do to others what you would not want done to you”. Of the insight behind Karma.

I "forget" a lot of the core values that I want to live by, and have to re-bind myself to them often. (That’s what “religion” is.)

Today I’m re-binding myself to: “We’re all just walking each other home”.

Brian+