Conversations For Transformation:
Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard
Conversations For Transformation
Essays By Laurence Platt
Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard
And More
Flying
San Bruno, California, USA
June 20, 2011
"If I don't manage to fly, someone else will. The spirit wants only
that there be flying. As for who happens to do it, in that he has only
a passing interest."
Not the kind of flying the way Orville and Wilbur Wright envisioned
airplanes flying. Nor the kind of flying the way Mother Nature has
birds flying.
Rather the kind of flying the way the spirit wants you and I to fly.
Ever since I was born I've wanted to fly. Not in the Wright-ian
way although
I sometimes fly that way.
Nor in the avian way although sometimes it's useful to
speak about flying the way the spirit wants you and I to fly,
analogously in the avian way. One of the attractions which
drew me to you is you fly the way the spirit wants you to fly. I
recognized it. I wanted it. I wanted to fly like you. I wanted you to
teach me to fly the way you fly. I wanted you to teach me to fly the
way the spirit wants me to fly.
You did teach me to fly. Or did you teach me to teach myself to fly?
One or other or both of the above is true. I don't know
which. It doesn't matter which. I can fly now. If I described flying
the way the spirit wants me to fly, using analogies from the avian way
of flying, I'd say sometimes I soar with eagles. Sometimes in spite of
my best efforts, all I seem capable of is hopping out of my nest like
an inexperienced chick, naïvely trying to fly but crashing instead
unceremoniously onto the rocks below. Complaining profusely, I soon
notice nobody's listening. So I splutter for a while, then dust myself
off, look at what didn't
work,
and launch myself anew. Sometimes I fly motionlessly and
masterfully
like a hummingbird. All of it goeswith flying (as
Alan Watts
may have said).
When I first asked you to teach me to fly, I wanted flying for myself.
Some aspects of my life weren't getting off the ground. Some aspects
of my life just plain didn't
work.
I wanted my life to get off the ground. I wanted my life to
work.
Yet all I could figure out how to do was settle for whatever came
along, with no real choice in the matter of my own life. After you
taught me to fly I noticed something which until then I hadn't seen
before - ever. It's not that I wasn't looking for it. It's not that I
couldn't see it. It's that until you taught me to fly, it simply wasn't
available like a possibility.
At first it was all about me wanting to fly ... then flying. Now it's
not about me wanting to fly any more. I no longer want flying for
myself. What I want is for others to fly. Wanting others to fly is a
natural expression
of my own flying. And if others don't fly, that's OK with me - even if
I want them to. Everyone's
OK the way we are
and the way we aren't. No one needs to fly. There's
nothing wrong
with not flying. I share flying as a gift. It's a gift which can be
freely
refused and
freely
accepted. What's truly magical about flying and sharing
the gift of flying, is the wonder and satisfaction which goeswith
flying and sharing the gift of flying, doesn't come from the gift of
flying being accepted. Neither is it diminished if the gift of flying
is refused. The wonder and satisfaction which goeswith flying and
sharing the gift of flying, comes from flying and sharing the gift
of flying. It's that simple.
If this was all you taught me, if this was the only thing you
ever taught me, it would have been enough. No, it wouldn't
have been merely enough. It would have been more than enough -
waaay more. You teaching me and others to fly isn't simply
"a" gift. It's "the" gift. There's
no greater love
a human being can bestow upon others than sharing the gift of flying
with them. None. Any other gift I may bestow upon others, or others may
bestow upon me, pales into insignificance next to the gift of flying.
It's what the spirit wants. And whether others fly or whether I fly,
doesn't matter. It's flying the spirit wants. Evenhandedly. For
everyone.
I know you don't want, expect, or need our thanks for flying the way
the spirit wants you to fly, and for sharing flying with us. I know you
have no preference if others fly or if I fly or even if you fly - as
long as there's flying. I recognize this about you. But for the record,
thank you anyway.
