I am sometimes accused of being egotistical, and I own that charge in a sense. Without an ego, none of us accomplishes anything. The rub comes when we confuse what we are with what we do.
What am I? I am someone born into a loving, stable family, and I am blessed with reasonably good health. I am above average intelligence and a product of what was once the world's best educational system.
Above all, I am someone who had the great good fortune to live most of my life in America in the last half of the 20th Century.
All of that is, of course, an accident of birth, and none of that is something I should take pride in, anymore than I should take pride in the color of my hair or eyes – or the color of my skin.
As for what I've done, that falls far short of what I should have accomplished, given all the advantages that fell to me by accident of birth. Thus, I haven’t the slightest reason to be egotistical in the derogatory sense in which that label is pinned on me.
Whenever I am tempted to be egotistical in that sense, God or Fate or whatever has been eternally vigilant in finding imaginative and excruciating ways of keeping me humble.
To cite just one small instance, a friend had written Descartes famous dictum “cogito; ergo sum” on a whiteboard at church. I took the liberty of “correcting” him and rewrote it as “cognito; ergo sum”, proving my ignorance of Latin and that I’d never read Descartes. Needless to say, my friend took great pleasure in “educating” me.
But perhaps I am egotistical, since even that sorry episode wasn’t sufficient to keep me from later having the temerity to add my own postscript to Descartes famous dictum:
“I think; therefore, I am; I am that I may be.”
Becoming has been a long slow painful process for me, and it has not been very becoming. But though I have fallen far short of becoming what I hoped and doing what I dreamed of doing, I have learned to accept myself as I am.
One thing that’s helped is a powerful teaching I received from another friend, a Native American shaman:
“You can know what you do, but you can’t know what you do does.”
The truth of that teaching has been brought home to me time and again, and I have been blessed to discover some good I have done has reverberated far beyond my original purpose and intent.
It may be a cliché, but it is no less true that our every act is like a pebble thrown into a pond; our deeds spread out in ever-widening circles far beyond our ability to perceive the consequences.
Unfortunately, that's as true of the ill we do as it is of the good we do. Thus, it behooves us to follow an old Cherokee wisdom saying:
“Walk in a good way.”
©2011 Tom Cordle
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Comments
Thank you for blending the wisdom you possess with the wisdom you have gained by being open to others before you and beside you.
As always, you say the sweetest things, and I'm sure the good you do will long outlive you
One of my songs has these lines about love:
I got the horse before Rene Descartes
I'm not thinking, therefore I aren't
Und du -- as the German's say
Walk in a good way. So simple, yet profound. Love it.
Rated.
Now I'm confused.
Thanks a lot Tom!
::sob::
Btw, tell Rene to walk away with a little more shake. R
Rated.
Thanks -- I wish the rest of me would work as hard
Gabby Abby
Whichever -- and if you think you're confused, try occupying my mind for awhile ;-)
ONL
Don't know the Latin, but I think, therefore, I write -- as opposed to a lot of neighbors whose dictum is I don't think, therefore I vote. That's why they keep dictuming the rest of us.
And anyone who thinks words can't hurt you has never been in a redneck bar on a Saturday night
Manhattan
Sartre's only value is as a rhyme with Descartes
To be sure that all the Descartes jokes are covered --
Descartes was drinking in a pub.
He drained his glass and set it down.
The barkeep said: "Would you like another?"
"I think not," Descartes replied.
Then he disappeared.
We're missing the other Descartes joke here--
Descartes was sitting in a pub drinking a beer.
He drained his glass and set in down.
The barkeep said: "Would you like another?"
Descartes replied: "I think not."
Then he disappeared.
Buffy:)
For many of us of a certain age, this is more of a blessing than we could possibly have realized. We grew up in the golden years of this country (except for racism).
I don't share Cioran's politics, but he was right about that. Ego vanishes when we lose ourselves, in group moments, with our peers--meaning something beyond friends, but short of lovers. The ego returns when we have to face the misery that encompasses everything again. When we have to be a Person.
Thanks, I have good reason to be humble
Stu Pot
It is most difficult for moderns to comprehend the medieval mindset that takes God as a given and thus is forced to strain credulity and reason to justify that a priori assumption
As for the rhyme, I am aware Sartre is properly pronounced with two nasally syllables, but among the ignoranti (like me) it is often rendered as one, and that one does indeed rhyme with Descartes
Thanks for the laugh -- I didn’t know Descartes was a Sinatra fan:
“So drink up all of you people
Order anything you see
And have fun, you happy people
The drink and the laughs on me
Pardon me but I got to run
The fact's uncommonly clear
I got to find who's now the number one
And why my angel eyes ain't here
Excuse me while I disappear”
Indeed. Mandela seems to have struck the perfect balance between ego and humility
James
Assuming I’m human
Lea
Exactly, and the failure to understand that fact is why I say the "self-made" man has a fool for a maker
Sally
You go to my head like a glass of champagne
Facade indeed. The ego tries to explain what the subconscious senses, but that can seldom if ever be put into thoughts or words. Thus the ego’s main job is to make up excuses for what the subconscious has already decided to do.
BOKO
To some this might seem to be trivializing, but what you describe manifests itself in team sports, where the whole is often greater than the sum of its parts. Of course, the ultimate expression of this phenomenon is found in war and the concept of esprit de corps
Thanks. Yes, even small random acts of kindness resonate far beyond the immediate
Naomi
That Cherokee saying struck such a chord with me I use it whenever I sign one of my books
Margaret
I wish I was as sure of that as you are, but thank you for the compliment. And by the way, I like the new picture
Huh? Let me swallow my pride (gulp) and ask you to explain. What you do does? Is there a typo in there? Am I even more obtuse than I gave myself credit for?
Sartre does so rhyme with Descartes:
Jean-Paul Sartre
told Descartre:
"I think too!
Therefore, I fartre!"
No typo, no Alpo
Also, another "little" "known" philosopher...
"Do--or do not. There is no try"
................Yoda
And don't feel bad about the Descartes mishap. As Monty Python sang:
And Rene Descates
That drunken old fart
I drink, therefore I am
Not even into the absinthe. Just basking in the light. Shine on.
Just call me Fats Domino
Satori
YaAre what Yado
Con
And you am the Man
Yes, my friend Two Dogs is a wise man. Hate to disagree with the Pythons, but as I dimly remember from my drinking days “I drink, therefore I ain’t -- much good for anything else.”
AJ
Ironic that you mention that since I’m working on a post tentatively titled God, Man and the Singularity that makes the point that Man may well be God’s Singularity
The Light can be far more intoxicating than absinthe. Still, as the old saying goes: “Absinthe makes the head go wander.” Or something like that.
Youre always a fun read Tom, even if Latin isnt a strong suit.
And to tie this into something you said in one of your return comments, there is a scene from the West Wing series where Pres. Bartlet asks wistfully "When did we lose Texas?" to which the answer was given by one of his aides (I dont recall which one) "You lost Texas when you learned to speak Latin."
I know it can be disheartening trying to do the right thing, while witnessing evil apparently triumph. But I think I know you well enough to know you couldn't really enjoy success from ill-gotten gain.
And while sometimes we may have trouble deciding what is the right thing to do, it's usually much easier if we remove monetary considerations from that decision.
Glad I could put a little fun in our life. I was a big fan of West Wing, and I would vote for Bartlet in a heartbeat. As for Latin, Bartlet should have told Texas voters he was speaking Texican.
♥R
Wado (thank you in Cherokee)
You write, “The rub comes when we confuse what we are with what we do.”
A few years ago I took the initiative to reestablish contact with the members of the little high school gang I associated with way back when. To my query, “How are you doing?” one individual responded with a long diatribe about what he was doing; career, committees he worked with, writing he was doing, etc. I wrote back: “That’s great. How are you doing?”
Never got a fully straight answer; or what I thought was a straight answer. After arriving at several conclusions about this, I decided there was no point in guessing about it and dropped it. It was just good, I thought, to be back in touch. Maybe I was just missing his point.
I can’t count the times my good intentions have gone wrong, but interestingly, there have been times when my anger has prompted good results. It is definitely difficult at times to predict the true effects on others of what we do. I also find that there are times when what I do affects me in unexpected ways.
Ego, or self-confidence; gotta be able to distinguish.
RATED
________
“You can know what you do, but you can’t know what you do does.”
Look at the favorites on peoples pages. Notice how often one sees your face?
"The eagle suffers little birds to sing, and is not troubled what they mean thereby." -Titus Andronicus
Now that's egotism.
rate
Your friend is not unusual. In our society, driven as it still is by the Protestant work ethic, people often identify with -- and even define themselves by -- their jobs. I'm not so sure that was ever altogether healthy, but these days it certainly is not, given that job stability is more and more a figment of America's past.
Fortunately or unfortunately, I have "enjoyed" what used to be called a checkered career -- which means I've never had one. While that has its own set of problems, it does carry with it a certain measure of freedom. Or as one of my friends said of me: Maintaining flexibility through indecision.
Thanks for the kind words, but if what you say is true, that's certainly reason enough to change my avatar for the protection of others
Call me paranoid, but methinks my post and I have just been labeled and libeled as abhorrent.
As for Titus Andronicus, I seem to recall his egotism didn't work out so well for him -- at least in Shakespeare's telling. The same might be said of the monumental egos of Julius Caesar and of late, Bush the Lesser.
By the way, the mighty eagle is not above scavenging like a lowly buzzard. I suppose the moral is that hunger makes mockery of both the eagle and the ego.
Yes, and even judging ourselves by what we do is fraught with the danger of egotism, for we fail to see the contributions others make to our success -- tho we seldom fail to see the contributions others make to our failures.
Or as I like to put it -- the "self-made" man has a fool for a maker.
I stink, therefore I am President of the United States -- George W. Bush
Yes, we see this folly of measurement being applied to education these days, as if a thirst for knowledge can be assigned a letter-grade. As a result of this folly, students do not get educated or inspired. I forget who said it, but "The purpose of an education isn't filling a bucket; it's lighting a fire."
Indeed, and to see where we're headed, head for my next post:
God, Man and Singularity
.