And DAMN, do I fucking feel you when it comes to that sense of urgency. Too many times, I've lost patience with myself, feeling like I'm so far behind in my own personal evolution that I can't possibly be of any use to the world and the betterment of it, to the positive growth and evolution of humanity and society. I really do feel you, D. I feel these things every waking hour of every day of my life -no exaggeration. When I was about ten years old, my father told me "There's going to be a revolution in your lifetime, and YOU have to be the one to lead it. Our generation fucked up; our time is passed. It's all up to you." Those words wrapped themselves around my heart and mind, and I remember them all the time, and sometimes those words crushed the wind from my lungs with feelings of helplessness, feeling like the world is too big of a thing for me to move with my tiny little hands.
And it is. But it is not meant to be moved by my hands alone.
If we intend to get this ship to shore, and out of the dangers of watery graves, and storms that would rip it apart leaving no trace of how far we've come, EVERYBODY must row.
But how do we get them to row? By pointing machineguns in their faces and telling them that they "Have To"? Nah man, you know that it's up to folks like us, using our tools of articulation to explain the necessity of the rowing, using what gifts were given to us who CAN translate the intangible things into bite-sized morsels for those who can't see the invisible, and through our modelling of such things as intelligence, honor, respect, growth, evolution vs. stagnation, to convince those with oars (which really is everyone on the planet) to row, and row for shore! Steadily but surely, we will make it. Even if there are those who jump ship, even if there are those who cannot make it and die, those of us who have been rowing since the earliest days will -and DO- have the strength to row for more that our occupied seat, and we bolster that strength as well as gloify it to the others who are like us, especially in front of those who would doubt or question their own strength, or waver at the fear that "this boat may never make it to dry land."
WE ARE THE ONES THAT KEEP THIS THING ALIVE.
And we MUST remember lessons like that which is written by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, in the second chapter of the Hagakure:
It is said that what is called "the spirit of an age" is something to which one cannot return. That this spirit gradually dissipates is due to the world's coming to an end. In the same way, a single year does not have just spring or summer. A single day, too, is the same. For this reason, although one would like to change today's world back to the spirit of one hundred years or more ago, it cannot be done. Thus it is important to make the best out of every generation. This is the mistake of people who are attached to past generations. They have no understanding of this point. On the other hand, people who only know the disposition of the present day and dislike the ways of the past are too lax.
Be true to the thought of the moment and avoid distraction. Other than continuing to exert yourself, enter into nothing else, but go to the extent of living single thought by single thought.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-01-20 11:33 am (UTC)And it is. But it is not meant to be moved by my hands alone.
If we intend to get this ship to shore, and out of the dangers of watery graves, and storms that would rip it apart leaving no trace of how far we've come, EVERYBODY must row.
But how do we get them to row? By pointing machineguns in their faces and telling them that they "Have To"? Nah man, you know that it's up to folks like us, using our tools of articulation to explain the necessity of the rowing, using what gifts were given to us who CAN translate the intangible things into bite-sized morsels for those who can't see the invisible, and through our modelling of such things as intelligence, honor, respect, growth, evolution vs. stagnation, to convince those with oars (which really is everyone on the planet) to row, and row for shore! Steadily but surely, we will make it. Even if there are those who jump ship, even if there are those who cannot make it and die, those of us who have been rowing since the earliest days will -and DO- have the strength to row for more that our occupied seat, and we bolster that strength as well as gloify it to the others who are like us, especially in front of those who would doubt or question their own strength, or waver at the fear that "this boat may never make it to dry land."
WE ARE THE ONES THAT KEEP THIS THING ALIVE.
And we MUST remember lessons like that which is written by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, in the second chapter of the Hagakure:
It is said that what is called "the spirit of an age" is something to which one cannot return. That this spirit gradually dissipates is due to the world's coming to an end. In the same way, a single year does not have just spring or summer. A single day, too, is the same.
For this reason, although one would like to change today's world back to the spirit of one hundred years or more ago, it cannot be done. Thus it is important to make the best out of every generation. This is the mistake of people who are attached to past generations. They have no understanding of this point.
On the other hand, people who only know the disposition of the present day and dislike the ways of the past are too lax.
Be true to the thought of the moment and avoid distraction. Other than continuing to exert yourself, enter into nothing else, but go to the extent of living single thought by single thought.