By Gerald Hausman
Bokeelia, FL, USA
Gerald Hausman
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Ziggy Marley once said to me in an interview, “Each person must go through his own tribulations until spiritual enlightenment takes place - until he sees love of life, love of self, love of tree, love of bird, love of bee.”
The golden rule, live and let live, feel and the world feels with you.
The children's writer Ruth Krauss once said, “Live and live let.”
Jesus of Nazareth: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
My friend Karl turned that inside out and it came to the same thing, I think - “Do not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you.”
The difference, a twist of Kabbalistic reason, shows how negativism can be positivism. It can be said in so many ways. But, always and ever, it revolves back to empathy, which, as Ziggy's father Bob said is - “Who feels it knows it.”
Love of bee has more than one implication. Scientifically, and philosophically, nothing may mean more to our survival as a species than this simple act of kindness, forethought and of course pure empathy.
Save the bee; save thee.
My own father used to say every morning before my brother and I went to school, "Think of the other person."
Yesterday, a friend of mine killed a honey bee with no thought at all. I watched him and he saw me and said, "I kill them whenever I can. If you don't, they sting you, and I am very allergic to bee stings."
I myself am a devotee of bee love. When they alight on me, I let them wander over the folds of my shirt or on my bare skin, no matter. If it's cold and the bee is chilled, I give them a little taste of honey. After supping and cleaning, the bee flies away content, as I imagine I would too if I were a bee.
Seeing them set off, gauze-winged, honey-fortified, into the late gold spring sun is a prayer of sorts, for me. Love of bee, do unto others, who feels it knows it, think of the other person. It seems to me there is nothing harder to achieve than this simple mastery of empathy. Without it, I believe, no amount of enlightenment - not even a squint of light - can come into your life.
As Ziggy said: love life, love self, love bee.
The rest comes with practice.
Links:
Gerald Hausman - Author & Storyteller
Gerald Hausman's profile at Stay Thirsty Publishing
Gerald Hausman, author and storyteller, calls himself a native of the world. He is the author of 70 books, some of which have been made into films, many of which have been translated into foreign languages. His latest book, The American Storybag, was released by Stay Thirsty Press in October, 2010.
