by Bernie Siegel M.D.: Dear Everybody,
1. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.
2. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
3. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.
I was reading something the other day and found it quite enlightening because for me it fit very well with Joseph Campbell’s statement that religion was a misinterpretation of mythology. In other words there is a message for us in religions and I try to learn from religions so that I get the message and act as God would want me to act.
What I read said that the word Torah should not be translated to mean the bible or the law but should be understood to mean instruction.
Hence in whatever part you read you should find the instructions it is giving you. I personally like that because I want to get the message and know how to live my life so that it is meaningful and enhances my life and the lives of others.
I think when we interpret it as the law, words become our Lord, and we get into conflict with each other over who is obeying the law and how to interpret the law. But when we see it as something which can instruct and teach us we can have a dialog about it and what we see within it and not fight over who is right and who is going to hell.
I am going to share some quotes I have found meaningful too. One said, Man is God’s needle to sew the patches of creation into a single garment for his glory.
At one end hard and sharp to squeeze through the ordeal. But the other end must have a vacant hollow, a nothingness with which to hold the thread. With the world we are firm and sharp. Within we know we are nothing before the infinite. I don’t need or want to say more about that and leave it to you to interpret.
I often talk to people with life threatening illnesses and try to get them to start a new life. To rebirth themselves and live a new life which they can love and enjoy because I know the physical benefits which come to us when our body senses that love.
My inner child wants me to share a practical example with you. A woman I know announced, when she developed breast cancer, that she did what felt right to start her new life. She said, “I had a mastectomy and a divorce. I gave up a tit and an ass.”
Now back to work. When I find common themes I know they must be meaningful and effective. So when I found these words of Joseph Campbell I felt they fit the rebirthing, born again context for survival behavior. He said the will to be oneself is heroism.
The hero is the seeker and the seeker is the mystery which the seeker seeks to know. In other words you want to bring your true self forth; to rebirth and experience the cycle of change. When you do this your inner nature is talking. Your true self and its power come forth. When you live your unique myth it is the expression in personified images of these natural internal energies.
This may sound unpractical or philosophical but it is really very basic. We create our lives by what we decide to do each day. We are creating the script for the myth which becomes our life.
I know in my life I have followed what felt right for me and I am very happy that I did rather than worry about what looked best and appropriate to others. Think how appropriate the following is to our lives and world today. We just don’t seem to wake up until a disaster occurs. So I can’t help but share these quotes which mean a lot to me.
Plato: When will there be justice in the world? When the people who are not wronged feel just as indignant as those who are.
Anne Frank: How wonderful it is that no one need wait a single moment to start to improve the world.
Alice Walker: Activism pays the rent of being alive and being here on the planet. If I weren’t active politically, I would feel as if I were sitting back eating at the banquet without washing the dishes or preparing the food.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: The question is not, “If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?” If I do not stop to help them what will happen to them? That’s the question.
Midrash: If we are able to be involved, but remain indifferent, we are responsible for the consequences.
Desmond Tutu: If you are neutral in a situation of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant steps on the tail of a mouse, and you say you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Humanity’s sole salvation lies in everyone making everything his business.
Mahatma Gandhi: I cannot imagine better worship of God than in His name I should labor for the poor.
Thomas Merton: It is only in assuming full responsibility for our world, for our lives and for ourselves, that we can be said to live really for God.
In a future column I am going to share what classic country western lyrics speak to us about because so many deliver the same message as all of the above do because they are about surviving and making a difference. Life is a difficult experience and we need to be there for each other.
I can’t help but think how the animals don’t need to receive all the instructions we require. They are created complete and so it is natural for them to rescue each other. I am sure you all have seen pictures of pigs breast feeding tigers or a squirrel being nursed with kittens.
However, our incompleteness makes our actions even more meaningful. That’s why the above quotes let us know we have a choice. And I know which choice makes me feel better.
I must also add that it is okay to ask for help. The animals have no problem letting us know when they want some love or a meal or a tummy rub. In our house they are constantly presenting me with examples of the above, and as I type this I hear our dog Furphy snoring, reminding me that it’s okay to take a nap now and then too.
Mentioning the pets we have I can’t help but share that our cat Penny died the day before I wrote this. She had a peaceful departure at age 19 to go and reunite with all her old buddies who preceded her.
Her death and my remembering what I hear when I am being interviewed on the radio should motivate us all to make a difference. The words, “We are running out of time” as the program is ending always gets me to share that we will all run out of time some day.
So use your life’s time wisely and live your authentic life by giving your love to the world, as the quotes all tell us to do, in your own unique way. Then the life you live is not the one that was imposed upon you but the one you created and gave birth to. You can save your life and find suicide unnecessary when what was killing you has been eliminated.
Then you and the world will benefit from your love and the joy of making a difference.
I just needed to get this out of my system and before your eyes. Keep rehearsing and practicing so Bernie will be proud of you. Whenever you are in doubt and all those quotes flash before your eyes think, “What would Bernie do?”
When you act out of love you are invulnerable. I have given mouth to mouth resuscitation to a hospitalized man with tuberculosis, the nurses thought I was crazy, and to strangers on the highway who were in an auto accident and not worried about their blood getting on me.
I feel if I am doing it out of love my body will protect me because of how love stimulates my immune system and healing potential.
Now to get to your homework: 1. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies … 2. Atheism is a … 3. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other …
Peace,
Bernie Siegel, M.D.
“What you focus on is what you get.” Ann Onymous
“Make life as meaningful as possible.” Oswald Spengler
“If there are no dogs in heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.” Will Rogers
Dr. Siegel is a resident of Woodbridge
