Was
it possible that I might have operated my life on a completely erroneous
premise? Could all my ideals and perceptions about my self, as well as the
society I live in, be wrong too? This was a stunning revelation imposed by false humility because I
considered my perceptions to be based on serious study and reflections… could I
have been completely wrong? Am I any different now? Is it conceivable to me
that next year at this time I might have an opposite revelation… that I am
wrong about nothing?
Nothing is more noxious to most of us than
false humility. I don’t believe that my whole life was wasted before I came to
the point of desperation that some call spiritually awakened or enlightened. The idea that I might
have been so would be a warped and sadly deluded projection of the image I
present to others because I know that in my heart I don’t believe it; why then
would I attempt to convince you of it if this isn’t false humility…an extension
of false pride?
It could be that
at this time next year I will see that I now believe some pretty silly ideas
that ought be trimmed down or tweaked but not completely discarded. I hope so.
I am sure that I don’t want to set in cement the concepts I hold dear today
because this assumes that others who disagree with me are of inferior intellect,
misinformed or lack a moral base. When I studied painting, my best instructor,
during our weekly critique, pointed out and encouraged what was working and
discouraged what was not by implication. Only our very worst attempts to make a
silk purse out of a sow’s ear met with a negative critique. I try to live my
life along these lines.
geo, 4,688
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