Ok - so I am now I'll be humming The Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" all day. Just this morning I was reminded what great teaching we can learn from many of their songs. Here is the background!!
I have been a subscriber to the free weekday email service called “A Word A Day” (http://wordsmith.org/awad/) for years. The publisher takes an English word, tells the word origin, pronounces it and quotes where it has been used in a newspaper or magazine. I have been a subscriber for a decade; long enough to remember when it used to be sent 7 days a week.
Normally, there is a theme to the week’s worth of words. The week of January 19th, the publisher focused on words that now US President Barack Obama has said in speeches or his books. There was quite a bit of feedback on some of the publisher’s comments that accompanied those words and the publisher shared those comments with the readers in the weekly “Compendium of Feedback.” That is what has sparked my blog entry today.
Some of the feed back was on Mr. Obama’s use of words which makes sense considering the forum. Plus, there was feedback in favor of the new President and others expressing displeasure at the unveiled support of Mr. Obama’s presidency that the publisher shows.
My favorite visceral comment was from a reader who doesn’t agree with Mr. Obama’s fiscal policies. This AWAD reader’s comments included a derisive tone that it wasn’t rational for a policy to be based on “each should give according to his ability and take according to his need…” It is not my intention to discuss whether this reader is correct in her summation of Mr. Obama’s policies nor indeed whether I agree with said policies.
Instead, there are many universal truths that we could debate in this one statement, "each should give according to his ability and take according to his need." One of these pearls of wisdom might be that Divine Responsibility and Divine Compassion can be used in the same sentence as examples of principles for which we all should strive. But my immediate response to the statement was to hearken back to the lyrics from the Beatles song, “Yellow Submarine”.
“As we live a life of ease
Every one of us is all we need, (is all we need).”
What a great sentiment! The line doesn’t say that we all HAVE all we need. It says that we ARE all we need. WOW. What a wonderful way of remembering the essence of what is truly important; not the having, not the taking, but the being. And in the being, we are all we need.
Couple this concept with a previous stanza of:
“And our friends are all aboard,
Many more of them live next door,
And the band begins to play.”
We start to see the benefits of viewing this earth as a place where we all live and thrive together; only not just living and not just thriving. We are living and thriving in joy. I would find in nigh impossible to listen to this song and not have loving joyful thoughts for my shipmates and those living next door.
Here is to a life of peace and ease where we rely on all and none! Let the band begin to play! Namaste.
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1 comment:
Lori,
thanks for your thoughtfulness and bringing back some memories for me, too!
"each should give according to his ability and take according to his need." was the motto of the kibbutz where I lived a long time ago. There was an elderly woman whose job was to fill the salt and pepper shakers in the dining room. She came faithfully, although on some days her arthritis acted up and I might have to help her open the bottles. She was completely equal to those who worked in the fields, schooled the children and washed laundry. It really is a beautiful way to live and, for me, an easy way to accept people for who they are. In our work-a-day-world it's sometimes hard to remember that we are each doing the best we can with what we've got.
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