This is one of my favorite lines from Rumi, the Persian/Sufi ecstatic poet who has become so popular of late. He often speaks in riddles, like so many wisdom figures—the riddle is meant to awaken us from our sleepwalking stupor into life. So, while the sentiment of this line seems pretty clear to me, I am really open to hearing other interpretations.
Mine is this: Life is not about what we do, but the beauty we are in the doing. It is so easy to get righteous, judgmental, indignant, or even angry when we give ourselves to a “cause” like sustainability. But, if we succumb to such states, then the beauty we are expressing in the NOW gets lost. So, too, if we are always working toward a “future” sustainability and beauty, rather than acknowelging that which already exists within and around us.
For some reason I feel compelled to add this: In all of the interviews, commentaries, and analyses I’ve heard in the last few weeks on the Lebanese/Islraeli war, this one has struck me the most: A Lebanese man, commenting on Hizballah, said (paraphrased): “What hurts me the most is that their hatred for Israel seems to be stronger than their love of their own children.”
I invite us all to focus on loving their “children,” whatever they might be, rather than on hating those who seem to be destroying those children or their future.
Let the beauty we are be what we do. Rumi
August 7, 2006 at 4:38 pm (Beauty and Sustainability - Laurel Reinhardt, Uncategorized)
