Dropping a Load...

Aloha Dear Readers,

Today, as we draw back into another Monday, I want to change things up a little to stay refreshed. I received an email from a close friend reflecting on the cycles we move through in life and I remember a story that I read somewhere. I think it comes from Herman Hesse’s “Siddhartha” (I added a link to the free Kindle version from Amazon). The story goes like this:

Two young men were standing in the dusty lane that ran through the center of their village arguing back and forth about the nature of Enlightenment. Their discussion was rather heated, but not unusual. Youth, after all, feels life in such a visceral manner. During an especially potent moment in their discussion, they noticed an old man walking towards them bent over by the load of tied together wood already milled for construction.

One of the young men said out loud to his friend, “Look, I bet this old man must know something about Enlightenment. Let’s go and ask him.”

So, the two young men made their way into the old man’s path and one of them asked him, “Old man, tell us: what is Enlightenment?”

The old man stopped walking and rolled his eyes up from the ground which he had been solely fixated upon. He looked at the young men, nodded his head, and moved his shoulders to the side. As the milled wood hit the dusty ground, the old man put his hands on his back, straightened his posture, and smiled, while shaking out the crick in his neck.

Upon witnessing this, one of the young men exclaimed, “I get it! Thank you, old man!”

The other young man shook his head, as well, and said, “I do too! But, old man, tell us one more thing. Tell us, what happens after Enlightenment?”

The old man looked very seriously back and forth at both of the young men, searching them for something. Finding his cue, he smiled, shook his head again, and reached down for his bundle of wood. Without a word, he hefted the wood back onto his shoulder, resumed his bent posture, looked to the ground and began walking away from the two young men.

Good story, no? I hope I haven’t ruined it from the original, which I haven’t read for quite a few years. For those of you who know the story well, I hope you will forgive my creative rewriting of a masterpiece.

I send this out to all of you waking up, as I will be, in a few hours ready to go back to work, fight the good fight, and try to bring the light of our effort into this world. We are like the old man. Each day, we have the load on our shoulders and we take a step. We try to escape our load with the many habits cultivated just for this reason, but end up the next morning with our load still present.

But, the old man was a master; he knew how to unburden himself. Without wanting to be too cryptic, Enlightenment means, in this reading, that our burden can be put down for a moment, lightened.

As with the old man, our load can be, and I contend that it is, removed from our shoulders, if just for a moment. Sure, life goes on; the burden, our load, will always be present. After recognizing the fleeting moments of Enlightenment which dance across the trajectories of our lives, though, the load will never be the same. The awareness of puttting the load down for a moment makes carrying it feel like a noble choice, something which we do, a responsibility which we carry, because we believe that our effort matters.

But, how do we recognize these moments of Enlightenment?

I think it happens in different ways at different moments of our lives. Often, Enlightenment comes to us from the mouth or email of a friend, from a random kindness witnessed or received during the day, or by looking at the staggering energy that we, with the help of our trusted colleagues, put towards leaving confusing and convoluted challenges a little bit clearer and better articulated each day. Through these quiet efforts, we, as dedicated professionals, strive to inject elegance into our own lives, the lives of those we share life with, and with our whole extended community.

After all, this is the true spirit of professionalism, is it not? This is why we spent so many years thoughtfully preparing ourselves for our careers, is it not? It is this spirit our colleagues and mentors recognized in us and took into account by awarding us with various well-deserved accolades.

And this deep-seated conviction that our effort is worthwhile keeps us moving, putting one foot before the next, regardless of the gargantuan megolithic systems which stand in our way. Mortgages and other silliness, cannot explain the essential need to dig deeply into our work.

Plus, a sense of humor sure helps…

Thank you very much for reading another blog posting. I’m honored. If there’s anything I can do for you, or if you have a quote which you’d like me to discuss, then please contact me. Again, if you haven’t already, then friend me on facebook, link me on LinkedIn, tweat me (I’m osabang), and check out my book here!

Dr. Z