I sit here digesting the sermon I heard this morning at the Seattle Betsuin. It was about consideration and human nature. I can't help but wonder if and when we became a society that moved from understanding how our actions affect others, to always trying to be "real" with each other. It seems that at some point we learned or forgot that there are others in our world, in our life, in our reach.
So when did this happen? Was it our parents who were rebelling from how they were raised by their parents? Was it the second wave of the feminist movement, who fought to cut off their bras? or was it a combination of both? I don't know if these are questions I can fully answer. I think everyone will have a different opinion on this, yet I ponder these questions.
I don't remember fully learning this lesson in my life. I am sure my parents tried to teach it to me, but due to outside circumstances, the lesson never fully sunk in to my brain. It seems this is the next step in my "growing up" life lesson. it is hard to acknowledge this, that I have spent most of my life so selfishly blind to how my actions affect the others in world around me. I have willing hurt others, in the past, because I did not understand that I had a choice not too. I felt justified and self righteous in my choice, because I was told I am the movie star of my life. Yet I can't be a movie star without a supporting cast, that would just define me as a Diva instead. While I understand that being too much of a people pleaser can be detrimental to one's health, I think going the other direction is just as bad. I am seeing this as being the case now. We have become a society of Diva's only out for ourselves.
What do you mean we are all Diva's you might ask? Isn't talking care of our self the most important thing? Isn't putting our self first important? I am sure you are asking yourself these questions as you read what I have written. Yes, taking care of yourself and putting yourself is important. But also recognizing you don't live in a vacuum is just as important. I see a movie star as one who recognizes their supporting cast to be as just as important. A movie star knows that without their supporting cast there is no movie. Where the Diva only sees what everyone can do for her and how she can use that to her advantage to move up in the world.
I think Don Miguel Ruiz says it perfectly in his book The Fifth Agreement. He says
The fifth agreement is the most advanced teaching of the Toltec, because it prepares us to return to what we really are: messengers of truth. We deliver a message every time we speak, and if we don't deliver the truth, it's because we aren't aware of what we really are. Well, the Four Agreements help us recover awareness of what we are. They help us become aware of the power of our word. But the real goal is the fifth agreement, because it takes us beyond symbology and makes us responsible for the creation of every word. The fifth agreement helps us recover the power of belief that we invested in symbols. And when we go beyond symbols, the power that we find is incredible because it's the power of the artistic creator, the power of life, the real us.
I agree with him in that being the movie star of my life helps me come into awareness of my personal power. I also have to understand that my words have power as well, and so does my tone and my emotions at the time I speak. This is what separates the Movie Stars from the Diva's. Today I move from being a Diva into being a Movie Star.
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