Went through some of my old box of diaries in the garage and was quite depressed by the groaning complaining tone of many of them. Adolescence can be so totally self-centred that even reading one’s own personal perspective makes you want to smack your younger self! At this particular age, you are generally the hero of the movie and every other person in your life is an extra. Not of great importance and usually ignored, resented or actively disliked by the perpetually embarrassed adolescent. One friend pointed out that her 13-year-old daughter told her, across the dining table, that she couldn’t stand the sound of her mother’s breathing! But along with the growing recognition of one’s self-preoccupation over the years the diaries have occasional gems. I found this interaction with my teenage eldest son, captured as we wrote in the diary to each other as we sat side by side at a summer school talk in Greece. It was fascinating to see his handwriting and mine on the page as we discussed stuff.
Me: What makes for a good speaker?
Son: Authenticity, systematic but also give an interactive presentation. They should be confident, and knowledgeable and speak loudly with excitement.
I have a vague memory of the speaker we were listening to as we wrote was quietly speaking in a monotone as he read head down from his notes.
Me: What is the reaction of an audience to a good speaker?
Son: They don’t try and correct the translation.
It was a Greek Summer school and any English talks were translated into Greek. Unfortunately, some of those in the audience who could understand both languages would often complain about poor translations. Such interruptions could entail ten minutes of excited arguments about the correct words to be used. The visiting Speaker would stand confused as shouting and arguments in Greek seemed to follow everything they said.
Me: But what should the audience get from the experience?
Son: It shouldn’t show until they check the sources used themselves and reach their own level of understanding, I guess.
Me: Is spirituality equivalent to following the Will of God for the age in which you live?
Son: Nope! I think spirituality is the quality of human consciousness and soul on a level that equates with the harmony animals have with nature.
Me: Thanks, I think I understand you, but deep stuff!
My Son just drew this in response.
Here are an assortment of entries from all the years of writing that resonate still. They remind me of so much I’d forgotten but also allow time for reflection. We live in such a reactive mode these days that it is rare to have time to really look back and learn the many lessons life has schooled us in.
- Some plants can only be distinguished by the differing parasites that infest them. Some mindsets can only be distinguished by the differing prejudices they exhibit.
- Strange, but I can see for the first time quite clearly why there is a need for an integrity of nature in those with whom we live. There is an honesty and dignity with which they carry themselves despite what they encounter. You know with certainty that even if you fell out with them and never associated with them again they would never backbite about you. It is because their code of behaviour is not dependent upon the fragile bond of human fellowship, but draws its strength from a higher source.
- A joy, intense and wonderful lifts my heart, and makes me smile at it all. How glorious is life, how intense, how abiding! Love should be like sunlight, blinding all, with its glory, curing all with its bounties.
