"Is Living Safely in Your Highest Good?"
After my last post, Is it Safe to Live from Your Heart? I received a deep and compelling response from Patrick Powers, scientist and world traveler. Patrick’s wise perspective and stories are a wonderful extension of the conversation about living from the heart. What is safety, really? How do we each best make the difference that is ours to make? With his permission I am gratefully printing his letter.
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I'm a scientist and live an evidence-based life (which the great majority of scientists do not, by the way). But in my 65 years I have learned that the heart is the only true guide. So it leads to pain, disappointment, and heartbreak. So....what?
We little humans can never know the ultimate consequence of any of our acts. It could all be worthwhile. Perhaps at long last I know the value of faith and trust. With our so limited awareness we have little choice other than to trust in a higher power and believe that ultimately all is for the best. When putting one's life in the hands of a power that is both invisible and silent, one has no choice other than to be guided by feeling for what is right.
I remember taking Hope our dog to the vet for that final shot. It had to be done. What a wonder she was. So considerate and polite. I did not know that a dog could be as civilized as any human. Toward the end of her life she knocked down a blue jay in flight. It sprawled before her, beak open, waiting helplessly for the end so nearby. Hope walked away, letting it live to fly again. She understood that it was better that way.
We are Teddy Roosevelt's man in the arena.(Link in comments below.) Our lives are not meant to be neat and tidy, not at all times. We live in the midst of a construction zone with all its noise and bustle and a certain amount of disorder. The inferior is torn down to be replace by the hopeful new. The way is unclear. Attempts are made and many fail. Backward steps of retreat are common.
To live in safety is to venture nothing and gain, well, something, but as I once heard, "If you don't play you can't win." And many would rather lose than play it safe. At least you feel something.
It is not safe to live from your heart. But question whether safety is the highest good.
Did Jesus seek safety? Martin Luther King Jr.? Mahatma Gandhi? Or even Don Quixote? Everyone knows the answer.
Sure, you and I may never be anywhere close to what these men did. But living in Japan I have come to understand what everyone does makes a difference. It may be small, but add together millions and it becomes large. I feel it every day.
Or conversely, as the man said, "For evil to triumph it is enough that good men do nothing." Do whatever good you can, however small.
Or else.