To Thine Own Self Be TrueThomas Alva Edison - does that name light up any part of your memory storehouse? Yes, the inventor of electric light. His greatest discovery - that if you took thin strips of bamboo, placed them in a glass bowl, and warmed them by electric current, then they gave out light. It was a marvellous evening apparently, when he invited folk to his home at Menlo Park, and they found it all lit up by electric lights! And that was just the beginning, with electric lighting to come to New York city. On his death in 1931, all the people of America switched off their electric lights, and sat for a minute in darkness as a thankyou to him. It's worth saying though that as a boy growing up in America, his schoolmaster dismissed him as 'addled', meaning 'backward'. It's also worth mentioning that through all his efforts to produce electric light, his friends, and leading scientific minds of the day, thought he was wasting his time, mainly because others had tried before, and repeatedly failed. Yet even as a boy, he wanted to know how things worked. He made notes in hundreds of notebooks from all he read. So in other words, to his own self he remained true, even though those many others thought there was no chance of him ever falling in the spotlight. Something within him urged him onward, relentlessly so. Throughout my life, I've generally realised I've got on with the elderly,(beside my own age group). There have been exceptions though - as a child, I was convinced that the lady who lived next to my Grandma was a witch - very small and stooped, she looked so old. Think I mellowed a bit when she bought me a model aeroplane kit... I also have a quiet admiration of those who'd be described as 'eccentrics'. I wonder if this is because these groups are less likely to put up a 'front' - more likely to be being true to their own nature, and expressing it - especially the 'elderly eccentric'! Perhaps this comes easier with life experience, and with the years, more opportunity for personal reflection, and self - awareness. Slowing down - if this happens - can give more scope for this. The author, and Unitarian Mary Sarton wrote:
"It's taken time, many years and places; Perhaps these words of Confucianism go a bit deeper: The Master said:
"At fifteen I set my heart upon learning. So who says it's no fun getting old! But these are still generalisations. Whilst the degree of it may vary, to be true to oneself can still remain a challenge through life. "Love is a choice, not simply, or necessarily, a rational choice, but rather a willingness to be present to others, without pretence,.or guile." (Carter Heyward) How well do you feel you manage this? How many of us can claim to be like this? Of course, there are times when we DO need to be on our guard - if our thoughts toward somebody aren't good for instance, the art of tact can come in handy...... We do, of course, go a lot off what we say, or hear. We like to think these words are coming from a true place. Often they hopefully are. I came across this Piece though - "You say" versus "What is meant." Have you ever come across these sort of comments?
"Far be it for me to say" = "I know better." Just a hint of hypocricy don't you think?... There"ll be many reasons why we don't always think, speak and behave as our true nature would have it. Early conditioning, from a variety of sources, over what was deemed appropriate, will most likely have something to do with it. This will include 'peer pressure'. A trivial example I remember of this was in my early days of secondary school. There was a large area of mud - by splashing through this mud, it could short cut the corner of the main area of concrete path by up to 15 seconds. At first, I would tramp through the mud with the others - the 'stick with the gang if you want to belong' mentality. Within me, I knew it not to be right though. If others were spreading mud through the school, it didn't mean I had to also! A very trivial example that I know. Yet there's a lot in the symbolism of that experience; maybe this is why I remember it. It reminds me of some words I once got in a Birthday card, which echoed something like: 'Do not necessarily go where the path may lead, but go your own path, and leave a trail.' (Preferably not one of mud!) On the day of judgement, Rabbi Lionel Bleu doesn't think he'll be asked "Why were you not more like Moses?" but "Why were you not more like Lionel Bleu?" There are infact two words, written in golden letters, on the lintel of the entrance to the temple of Apollo, at Delphi. They are 'Gnothi Sauton', greek for 'know Thyself.' It's said that Socrates learnt the motto from gazing up at the great Lintel. I don't think any of us could argue with the wisdom contained in these two words. So why can some of us have difficulty in realising this? There'll be many reasons. Wearing a mask (symbolically) can work, putting on a 'front'. And that CAN be a good thing. The 'better to say I'm fine with a grin, than to let others know the real state I'm in.' That would go along with the same psychological approach that if you want to be, say, confident in life, ACT confident - don't let others be aware of you not being. That, in turn, could breed confidence. The same goes for qualities such as calm, patience, or some other quality you'd like to develop. That approach is good, as long as it works, in a sense. But it's success will also depend on the question ' Is it helping me to become myself? Or is the pretending game holding me back in some way?' Which has the greatest 'pay-off'? Is the 'how I should be to others self' replacing the 'to thy own self being true'? So how can we know, or have a good idea, that we ARE each being true to thy own self? Having a 'hunch' or 'gut instinct' can help. Loving yourself, doing what you naturally love to do, it's said is a crucial part of knowing yourself. But as Mother Teresa once asked, when she felt for the first time the desire to spend her life for God's work: "How can I be sure?" "The deep inner joy that you feel, is the compass that indicates your direction in life" the reply given (through prayer). Yes, that's one yardstick to use. Yet not everything we need to be, or do in life, can be with 'inner joy'. Jesus, to his own self being true, remains one of, if not the best, example we have of this. Yet even he will have felt the struggle , and anguish, especially in those latter years of his time on Earth. Yet he continued to proclaim the Kingdom of God, in both word and deed, knowing this is what he needed to be doing, and knowing this on a deeper level. Living in that heartfelt manner then, in a spirit of love, is another way of seemingly being true to oneself. In times of adversity though, this naturally becomes more difficult. Yet this makes Jesus' mission more meaningful still. He didn't let the hostilities, and cynicism around him on a large scale, deter him from what, within his heart, he knew to be a Way of Truth which he needed to be spreading to others. So as the light of Thomas Edison continues to illuminate our outer world, may the shining example, and influence, of Jesus (or/and anybody else we look to), be a beacon to guide us, inspire us, on our ongoing inner-life Journey, the Journey towards ourself. Amen Graeme Pilbrough 27/04/2008 |