Birthright
What is luxury?
Fine food, fine wine
Different lands, different people, different tongues
Water, sand, sun, sky:
Nature in all Her splendour.
Servants and service, our ev’ry whim
Fulfilled -
Singers, dancers, masseurs, chefs
A multitude of choices arrayed
To delight and dazzle us
Confounding our inner judge
Drowning out its strident
Admonitions: “You may not. You must not. There is not enough.”
“You just haven’t earned it yet.”
Freedom from want, freedom from duty
“Sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight.”
Freedom from normalcy, free refills
“You’ve been upgraded.”
Freedom from lack, freedom from fear
“You’ve earned it.”
But Nature is in the world, if you see Her
The songs are in your heart, if you hear them
The wine is from your soul, if you taste it
The food is with your friends, if you share it
The dance is in your work, if you dance it.
Stand up, relax, and enjoy the walk.
You need no upgrade.
“You may. You must. There is enough.”
It
Is yours
And has been –
From the very start.
To pierce inside the glittered box
You find a space where empty stalks
Never vacant, always enhanced
Meant to keep the short mind entranced
The envelope was always sealed
To keep intent scantly revealed
The beautified must always spin
Dare to stand still and glow within
In studying systems, I came to the conclusion that the larger system typically determines the course of its constituent sub-systems. Planet Earth circles the sun at a distance of 93 million miles, so Europe, Asia, and the Pacific Ocean also travel around the sun at the same distance. If I decide to run a marathon, my feet run 26.2 miles. If I eat a cheeseburger, my stomach has to absorb that. If I smoke cigarettes, my lungs and blood stream deal with tar and nicotine. When Japan went to war with the U.S., its citizens, including un-comprehending babies, eventually lived, and died, under a rain of bombs from B-29 Superfortresses. And so on.
With that in mind, I decided that my emotions should not determine my course, but rather I should determine the course of my emotions. I realized that I could choose my internal state just as I choose which pair of shoes to put on in the morning. I may not control the weather, the politicians, or the bankers (all external milieux), but I can decide whether I want to be happy or not. I realized that I could choose to be a happy and peaceful person, irrespective of the external situation. This was my birthright, just as much as a pair of legs and a nose. I simply can choose to be peaceful and happy. It is my birthright.