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Inbetween VIII I'm stuck this morning, resisting writing about how I got to be friends with Lynette and with Noenoe and Keala and Mahealani and Paula. For one thing, I don't want to talk about myself, so I'm getting abstract and "should"y. For another, I don't want to analyze "the way" for anyone. Go find your own way for goodness sake! I feel rude and uncomfortable. That said, the way is getting out of the tower and going to places where people who aren't at the university hang out. Go to the palace. Get involved with some group that's not made up of academics. Follow feeling. Follow grassroots. Practice being the ones who don't know anything. I don't mean false humility and servitude. I mean listen and take in and watch--not from the position of needing to be given to all the time, but to see how you can help. Where do you want to help? What can we do? You won't know till you know what the problems are. And there are different people looking at different problems. You'll have to choose. Turn up. That's the beginning. Keep turning up. Keep turning up. Keep turning up. If you think you don't have time, make time. Prioritize. If you have an idea that seems good, be ready to see it's not appropriate, but that doesn't mean stay utterly silent all the time. Maybe you see something helpful that no one else can. The world is not doing too well, and I still say we're part of the problem. Perhaps things have to turn upside down. Teachers become learners, learners teachers. What if there isn't a standard for human beings to come up to? What if everyone's different? Remember--Shakespeare signed his name 17 different ways. Why was he so brilliant with words? Could it be--room to breathe? What is there to learn from 18-year-olds? I hear too much despising of teenagers, of freshmen. I hear too much despising. What do they have to teach us? Open heart, open. Go where you fear to go. But still use your head. Don't go stupid places you fear to go. That's how I got beaten up in Tangiers, walking out into the soukh in the evening even when I knew I shouldn't. Go good places you fear to go. Tingly fear is a signal it might be right. Something is changing in the world. Let's be part of it and not part of the liberal academy talking to itself, as Robert Fisk wrote in that article today. More uprush, not less. Read Swami Beyondananda and laugh a lot. You asked... |
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