Some people as they grow up become less … . Other people as they grow up become more.*
(Eugene Peterson)

The birth of a person is the aim of pedagogy.**
(M. C. Richards)

Today is my 62nd birthday, so I guess I’m sensitive to anything referring to birth and to growing up.

As I read Rohit Bhargava’s non obvious trend of Overwealthy – a name he provides for those who struggle with being wealthy – I did consider juxtaposing his words with those of Eugene Peterson:

the Gläce Luxury Ice Company sells tasteless ice that had been “hand-carved” from large purified blocks … . At just over $300 for a bag of 50 ice cubes, it promises customers “minimum dilution and maximum cooling,” … .^

This felt like a variation of the folktale The Emperor’s New Clothes.

I also came upon words describing what coming alive means for the Trobriand Islanders:

the Trobriand universe is a vast disembodied space filled with both minds and energy. Cosmic minds are all-seeing, all-knowing, and all-powerful, able to manipulate the energy of the universe toward whatever end they desire.^^

The problem is, if you can do whatever you want and you know everything there is to know, the result is cosmic boredom:

They have power to do whatever they wish, but because they have no needs, that power has no purpose, and because of that, no sense of life. So these cosmic minds have created a game for the relief of their boredom:

To play, you must be born into a human body, and to be born as such, you must forget the fullness of what you knew and work only with what can be known through the body.^^

Welcome to life!

Perhaps you are one of these cosmic minds, escaping boredom but finding purpose, the possibility of growing up to become more.

I think my greatest fear, as I continue to grow up, is not to have less but to be less.

The wanderer becomes one with himself or herself and the universe. We connect with the energy of all living things. We live according to our inner nature.*^

*From Eugene Peterson’s Run With the Horses;
**From M. C. Richards’ Centering;
^From Rohit Bhargava’s Non Obvious 2019;
^^From Lewis Hyde’s A Primer for Forgetting;
*^From Keri Smith’s The Wander Society.