Cool Mind Warm Heart

Big Love, Small Love

 The universe is full of beautiful irony.  Take love, for instance.

Big Love is among the rarest of human emotions because it is so pure and life-affirming.  Small Love is among the most common of human emotions because it is so messy and destructive.  Yet, it is only through Small Love, what you might call our humanness, that we come to treasure and embrace Big Love, our divinity, our true self. 

TO COMMUNICATE WELL

My professional history has caused me to be asked on occasion, “What will it take for us to communicate effectively with the world?”  Over the years, the first words out of my mouth have become, “Learn to manage fear.” 

Eyebrows have been known to hit the skylight in response—“fear” being the most despised four-letter word in American business, if not everywhere.  No surprise, really.  We fear most what we understand least.

So I offer my two cents.

Kissing Professor Gates

The universe certainly gave professor Henry Lewis Gates, Jr. of Harvard a big smooch.

It arrived at his doorstep dressed as a police officer.  Of course it wasn’t really a police officer.  It never is.  It was, rather, metaphysically speaking, a mirror.  Its purpose was to show the well-honored professor a part of himself that, should he choose to pay attention to it, would grow his self-understanding, and thus his compassion.

“Oh, youhoo, professor Gates,” said the universe, “you have at least one pretty big belief that’s weighing you down, you beautiful creature.  Here, let us show it to you; maybe you don’t need to hold it so tightly.”