Posted by
Scaramouche on Tuesday, November 06, 2007 5:24:46 PM
Quote Of The Day
The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that
danger may come. When in a state of security he does not forget the
possibility of ruin. When all is orderly, he does not forget that
disorder may come. Thus his person is not endangered, and his States
and all their clans are preserved.
- Confucius
Have you ever seen a panicky mule? Like it or not, we all have a record. Our past actions, yea even our thoughts and intentions are writ large and indelibly in the book of life. Thus is my record of cowardice not only ever with me, but forever available to He who would see. Panic, being a heightened state of fear, induces altered behaviors and presses its effect upon other emotions as well. Thus did panic dominate poor Scaramouche and it was panic that chose the mule's direction. From whence the fear? Absence of logic, events having already occurred, dread of the unknown? Who speaks of facing your fear would have you believe that there is a cure, an answer, or perhaps only an opportunity to stare beneath your surface to what within which holds you, possesses you.
Once you relinquish your fear and the illusion of its control you no longer seek to avoid what frightens; you accept it.
After more that a half century of floundering; falling and rising again; doubting; twas serendipity or a force far greater that brought me here. Safety and security, the impostors that they are, led me on a quest as unattainable as Arthur's grail. A sermon and faith left me on the doorstep. Now there is growth to accomplish, other impostors, success and failure, to unveil, and then we're off to mule graduation. Graduation, in a scholastic sense, implies an exit and an entrance for one must have graduated from something just as surely as to something. What we graduate to contains neither safety nor security because as ephemeral as they are, they tempt a mule to cease striving. Each day Scaramouche must don the yoke and bear the burden til his master decides the work is done.