In a 1639 book of English and Latin proverbs, John Clarke wrote, “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” As with all proverbs, they only tell part of the whole story.
There are always exceptions to correlations, such as those in this proverb. For example, what about the night-owls who are healthy, wealthy, and wise; or the unhealthy, poor, and foolish people who get up at dawn and go to bed before sunset?
Don’t we all want to be beautiful, wealthy, healthy, know-it-all, famous, and slim? In reality maybe we’ll be one or two of those things.
I can hear some of you exclaim, “speak for yourself, woman. I’m all of those and more!”
If the facts be acknowledged, we don’t really want all of those things, exactly. Maybe if we clearly possess one or two of them, let’s say, health and fitness, what we want is for our life to have purpose, and meaning; to be loved.
Wasn’t it the Dalai Lama who said, “if you find a meaningful job, you’ll never work a day in your life?” I know it was he who said, “Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.”
How many times have you wanted something really badly, even desperately? And, you were nearly devastated that it didn’t materialize for you. Been there, done that!
Perhaps not getting that thing, situation, occasion, etc. was lucky, as the Dalai Lama said. Or, maybe it was a blessing in disguise. A step to the side of the path you were trodding, an alternative course may have been the divine plan all along, as opposed to your well-plotted course.
About that desire to be one of the beautiful people, let’s rethink that. “Beautiful people,” in the popular sense, love to complain about their physical beauty getting in the way of their other attributes. All they’re valued for is their obvious beauty, negating other perhaps more lofty traits. What else, they ask?
Wealthy people live in some fear that they are valued only for their money. “What if I lose all of this?” They are at constant risk of being taken advantage of, exploited, and live primarily in defense of what they “have.”
Slim people, fit people are, well sticks in the mud of a planet filled with frustrated and envious, not-so-slim beings trying with all their might and their money to be them. If you want to be envied, being slim is one path to your goal. However, slimness does not wholeness bring.
“Know-it-alls” are given that moniker of derision, because they’re disliked for their font of knowledge; something slightly different from wisdom. In fact, “knowing it all” is an illusion. Humility, a more beloved characteristic, is associated with the the best of knowledge, wisdom.
Fame, or to be known by multitudes. Do you really want that? What happens when you want just a moment of privacy but all of you, your time, and your space, is filled with those who want to see and know more and more of you?
Being known is ever so slightly different from being seen. Being seen verges on the point I’m attempting to make, that living a life that has meaning, is the primary want of most human beings. We want to be acknowledged, seen, valued just for being who we uniquely are; not for our beauty, fitness, wealth, knowledge, or build.
- I see you, my friends.