' All Gone '

Finishing Your Vegetables

Its funny to hear kids say its ' all gone ' … when you ask if they have eaten their vegetables. The answer reveals the fact that the child does not have a self identity … and does not as yet refer to himself in any way. Hence parents begin a practice … of training the kids … to identify themselves … in relation to an object. These days that is often an action toy … or a barbie.

In growing up … the child displays considerable daring-do in his activities … and this may be traced to his identity … in relation to the action toy. It also promotes an open mind … and an attitude of equality … with everyone else … because there is little cause … in the child … to create a self possession of his identity. In maintaining such an attitude … the emotion that represents the child's toy identity … takes on a strange … relation to the Theta energies of the brain … that we as yet know very little.

What we do know … is the observation we create of the child … as he grows into his teens … and then adulthood. We observe the way in which … he mixes freely with all … is somewhat independent … enthusiastic … and is likely to take people at their word … about what's being said. In adulthood … it displays itself as a cavalier attitude … suave … and gentlemanly … with regards to his relations with others. It draws on the curiosity of those around him … and fills them with wonder.

In Malacca … in 1511 … the Portuguese had arrived … and were negotiating for trading rights with the local administration. However a rumor got started that they were planning to invade the sultanate … and the locals hatched a plan … to attack them … in their ships while they slept. The story is that a local gal … who had come to know one of the Portuguese men … swam out to the ship … and warned them. It saved their lives.

Such is the power of the quality of enthos … that we find in association … with the identity of men. However … we find in recent times that the quality of the cavalier … is replaced by love of money … and success at any cost … and we sometimes bring ourselves … to exert the same pressures on the object of the enthos within … to deliver the goods … presuming as we do … that its simply a matter of our charms.

Sadly its not responding in the same way that it used to respond to causes. But it does respond to initiatives … that represent the greater good. When we inquire further … it points to our individual natures … our roles … and the duties that we bear … to the community. But beyond what our parents raised us with … and the general ideals we come to adopt … it does not provide us more information to go on. We rely on the coach in some way … and quite often the man … persuades us to take an initiative … for greater awareness.

But we encounter the quality of enthos ...  on the street where we live … and wonder about the way we manage it. Would it be unusual … for instance … for a traffic policeman … to come across a driver on the road … driving above the speed limit … and find in the encounter … such a deep and profound enthos … in the driver's qualities … that impacts upon the policeman? Even though the driver is not a man of the cloth … his speech and expression … may reach the policeman … at the place … he reserves … for his relations with God. Would the policeman say to himself … ' I'm ticketing God … for speeding?'

In international relations … American foreign policy … regarding Israel … has come under the same sentiment. Other people … affected by such a condition … expect that the Americans … will still ticket the Israelis … if they have been speeding. And in turning that question … to America's finest in uniform … whether that is the military or law enforcement … we find with regard to the individual's responsibilities … that we place on such individual's … a level of self management that far exceeds what the average achievement … is in society.

Its not very different from … the infatuation two people feel for each other. In the enthusiasm of the experience … we need to realize the subtle content of the experience … that forms the basis … of their decision making about each other. Certainly the feminine experience looks … for some seriousness … with which the male … views that experience of the subtle. For either of them will not enter into a relation … that overtly denies the male's … association with the subtle energies.

In public office … we encounter the role … of the man … with regards to ideals of the social good … in the way that it arises … in the individual experience. Certainly … it would be important … for the man to maintain a discernment … between his impulses … the impulses of the public … and his volition … on the issues. It reminds us … of the incredible relation … one man … comes to have with … the creative forces of the world … and his integrity … on the matter.

Its new … there's no question about it … but we do need to raise our awareness of it. Its the promise … of what is best about all of us … and yet … without managing it well … it appears finicky … and extraordinary … in its applications … to daily life concerns. And yet we can't do without it. The answer would lie … in the way we … bring ourselves to increase our relation to it … and how we transform it … into a working instrument of the times.