Scorpions are arachnids, close relatives of ticks, mites and spiders.Some species may live for 20 to 25 years. Adult scorpions may have several broods of young. Following an elaborate mating process, which lasts from 24 to 36 hours. Upon birth, Scorpions leave their mother.
Scorpions are solitary hunters.
The parable of the Scorpion
A scorpion was walking along the bank of a river, wondering how to get to the other side. Suddenly, he saw a fox. He asked the fox to take him on his back across the river.
The fox said, "No. If I do that, you'll sting me, and I'll drown."
The scorpion assured him, "If I do that, we'll both drown."
The fox thought about it and finally agreed. So the scorpion climbed up on his back, and the fox began to swim. But halfway across the river, the scorpion stung him. As poison filled his veins, the fox turned to the scorpion and said, "Why did you do that? Now you'll drown, too."
"I couldn't help it," said the scorpion. "It's my nature."
The Paradox of the Scorpion
A man was buried to his neck and left to die as a means of torture. The scorpion came to him and the man asked the scorpion how he would keep from going mad.
The scorpion said "Love your pain and cherish it and it will leave."
And then man said "If I love my pain, I won't want it to leave."
The Scorpion said "Now you understand pain."
This weekend I spent a lot of time talking about attachments and expectations. Expectations, I understand better, because they are grounded in the future. I have spent a lot of my life living in the future: I wish I was older. I wish I was 16 so I could drive a car. I wish I was 18 so high-school would be over. I've wished a lot of my birthdays away. Thursday I will be 44 years old, I don't wish away my birthdays anymore.
44 is a good age. According to Ernest Moody, I now know everything I will ever need to know. I don't always feel like that's true. Expectations have to live in the future, but I have to live in the present.
Attachments are a bit different. I bond with people. I call it the "Tin-Man Syndrome." In L. Frank Baum's "Wizard of Oz," the Tin-Man had no heart. As a result, he did not know if he was good or evil, so he would always err on the side of kindness, as he did not want to do harm by accident. Consequently, he was the kindest character because of this.
I become invested in people, I bond with them, because if I don't, I am apathetic towards them. I've been accused of being apathetic toward people, toward their feeling. I don't know if that's true, but I can be cold.
Not having attachments is a concept I have trouble getting my head around. The way it is presented to me is that without attachments, when the inevitable parting comes, whether it be through death or by choice, the pain associated is survivable. I've survived loss all my life, does that mean that I've had no attachments? Is my freedom free floating? Can I have freedom from attachments and still be invested in them?
I was raised by a grandmother that used the word "love" very freely. As a result I am not afraid of that word. My grandmother didn't love baseball, or chocolate, she liked them. She loved people. She was very specific about that. She taught me that the first and last thing you should say to people is that you love them. The last words I said to her before she died was "I love you."
I don't regret saying "I love you" to her that day or anyone else I've said it to since. Even the ones that didn't know what to do with those words. Love means a lot of things. I love a lot of people. I've only "in love" a few times. Is that the definition of an attachment? Do I have to be "in love?" Do I want to live a life without attachments? It seems very lonely.
Someone who is very precious to me has given me a piece of wisdom that is now a part of my lexicon. I steal things from people. Eventually, I'm sure, I will claim this as my own as though it spawned from my forehead like Athena from Zeus. The wisdom is "Start as you mean to go." It's a very old-fashioned, quite British expression, that means acting and sounding as if it were already a success. You've already won, but you still have to play the game.
Do I know what the future looks like? No. Do I have expectations? No more-so than many people, less that most. I live only today, I don't really have a choice in the matter. This is the life I have, this is the life we all have. But I know what I'd like the future to look like. Sometimes the faces change, most of the time they don't.
I have, for the majority of my life, been in pursuit of a dream. When I tell people about it, I'm amazed at how many people don't think I'm crazy. All the ones who really matter tell me I'm not crazy, that I should follow that dream.
So, I start as I mean to go, with a plan, following a dream, into a future with no expectations, with no attachments, while trying to remain invested in people. If it sounds like like a juggling act, it is. If it sounds impossible, you need to understand that it's not. Because anything worth having is worth fighting for. Anything worth believing in, is worth dying for. I suppose that's what is all means, what it means to all of us. We live it. That's the secret to life.
Right now, the Princess, is nodding and smiling and thinking that I just wasted a lot of words on something simple. Just live.
Right now, the Actress is nodding and smiling and thinking that I'm right.
They're both right.
So are you.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment