How will I be remembered? What’s my legacy? These are minstrel musings, an ego-generated mental entertainment. The under-appreciated and extravagantly named Victorian poet Coventry Patmore had a different kind of question: “Shall I, a gnat which dances in Thy ray, Dare to be reverent?”
Is one culture better than another culture? One prison better than another prison? One ego better than another ego? We are fixated on our confinements. On how to improve, fix and reform them.
Impatience is an intolerance of what is spurred by a desire for what isn’t. The man who is chronically impatient lives with the talons of “What’s next?” sunk deep into his upper back.
As a person, a mere mind/body, I’m a bundle of memories and habits, fears and desires, obsessions and aversions, likes and dislikes. This is just a temporary arrangement. I am not a carry-on.
Hey there! Buddy, speaking! Yessir, your ego! Your pleasure-seeking pain-avoiding wired-for-business hyper viper! Yes, it’s me! Me as you! The voice in your head that never shuts up! That likes and dislikes, desires and fears, judges and labels, worries and wonders, remembers and imagines, plans and organizes, reacts and repeats?! So times a-wastin’, dude! Pitter patter, let’s get at ‘er!
Men's Work 