Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off. - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Sometimes Guides really infer some powerful thoughts and they have to be expressed. As to why? Well I've long since ceased any arguing about that, for I never win such debates...

It is always an interesting thing to watch a roomful of "spiritual" people coexist for some time. I once had this honor, of remaining the virtual fly on the edge of a wall during one such seminar of spiritualist souls. The sight was anything but spiritual and everything that we usually accustom to a 1960's vision of the United Nations at the height of some rather major tensions, and even that vision was better mannered.

By the time the lunch-hour had approached there were some people shaking their fists and others simply attempting to yell over each other. There were several others quite literally up on a table top on their knees and one even on her feet taking out her frustrations on what was and what was not being discussed, while the others were merely and quite meekly shaking their heads in downright disbelief at the spectacle that was unfolding before their eyes.

Yes folks, this was spirituality in action, or so it was described at that time. Thank heavens it wasn't the rule, but more the exception.

I quietly slipped out of the door, got into my car and headed for home. I had had enough of that brand of spirituality.

When I first read the leading quote by FDR, my first thought was that it was a typical brand of logic from a career and a well seasoned politician. After some time however, the logic unfolded into the same sort of brilliance sometimes found in a fine and intricate origami figure, worked on with much care and meaning so much to both the creator and the holder of the work. To truly grasp the meaning to that phrase: "but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off", means to set aside ones own prideful and cement-like angst, and to visualize the bigger spiritual picture that's been intended from the beginning.

It would appear that sometimes, while there is sure concern for the needs of the client, the spiritual interest of the person or the overall client who remains in some need, it also remains that sometimes a cooperative sense of spirituality all too often takes a backseat to other interests. Admittedly, each and every person has their own needs to meet and their own spiritual inclinations to see to, and when these line up in the interest of the client, and/or others, that's a wonderful happening and one that hopefully is striven for throughout the spiritual experience whatever it may be.

When however, that greater sense of spirituality seems to become little more than a soapbox sales show of one type or another, then one wonders about the motives and the determinations of some versus others.

I recently had a conversation with a friend who is a holistic healer and he kindly reminded me that the same passion from which many of us recoil, when I referenced that table top scene earlier in this blog piece, that this is also indicative of a passion and  caring and a love for that which we all consider the "Spiritual" in us all and in everyone, and when opinions differ, when conclusions appear diverse and when voices and personalities tend to take on more evangelistic qualities, sometimes its for the love of that very same sense of spirituality in itself.

Then again, sometimes it is simple and downright greed for whatever follows such a motive, but the only one to truly come to any personal conclusion surrounding this, is the soul at the center of the mindfulness of such thinking.

Some choose to avoid the culture of angst and to simply move onward helping and healing, and doing what we can for others while the alternate culture continues.

As Always,

WD