“What is essential is invisible to the eye,” quoted Dr. Leo Busgalia from The Little Prince. The essentiality he is referring to are the qualities within us which makes us unique and limitlessly interesting. He believes that everyone has the capability to love; however very few of us realize that potential, or even know who we are and what love is. As the cliché goes, we “look for love in all the wrong places,” when, through it all, love is within us. Busgalia points out that humanity searches for answers outside, where the light is, and we fail and fear to explore the dark, the dark uncertainties that make up a vital part of who we are.
We build up insecurities and attempt to fulfill the requirements and roles outlined for us by society. All the while, we fail to realize that these laws were put in place because we are trying to find the one right way to live, to differentiate between good and bad, and to invent the perfect lifestyle. As we do so, we move further away from nature, an essential part of us, and label ourselves as superior. Our society is practically running by remote control. It is so technologically plagued that we are destroying ourselves and our world by forgetting ourselves ( a slight exaggeration, but you get the gist).
No one looks inward anymore. He suggested that we take the opportunity to collect all the holy books and read them, and then reflect on them because we will be amazed by the “commonalities” they share. We constrain ourselves with roles and labels, when we should be painting the world with our colors and beauty. He tells us that beauty lies within us, and it is what there is to love. We worry extensively about insignificant details, about what brand of shampoo we use or toothpaste, and about clothing. It is a waste of a time that could have been used to meditate on a journey of self-discovery. We worry about our body, which he says is “metaphysical and weightless.” It carries “what’s essential, but it itself is not essential.”
Throughout life, we search and search for an answer, hoping that out there somewhere, the millions of questions bubbling within each of us will be answered by some philosopher or some random person with a PHD. But “nobody has your answers.” The way to live is through simplicity. To forgive those who hurt you, be kind to your enemies, to know who you are not the “you other people tell you you are.” The moment we find that serenity within us, we’ll understand what he meant by “only with the heart can one see rightly,” the magic and the wonder people forget they are. If we are lucky enough to find ourselves, then we can give the best of who we are, and share with others that beauty. We will know, through sharing, that when we cry and laugh, we are not alone. We will know that love is living, giving, hurting, unity, despair and hope, and that “to live in life is to live in love, and to live in love is to live in life.”
Sand-Dollared Cataract by Sofia Mitchell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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