Mobility

WED., AUG. 4, 1982, 2:38 PM
35,000 FT., HEADING FOR HONOLULU

You are here on a large plane, o son, heading for a reunion with an island and with life in what once was your home. You certainly have not been as mobile as many in your part of society, but you have gotten some life value from mobility.

You were feeling two honest but competing emotions yesterday – excitement at the thought of this trip today, more than 4,000 miles westward… and a reluctance to leave what you are cultivating and developing at your Farm. You know these need not compete. They are both part of the rhythm that is the best life for you. You need a definite, solid, entrancing base for living, and you also need to accept the opportunities to be mobile… to move in directions expected and also in sudden unexpected ways. (This is not necessarily the best rhythm for everyone, but it is a good one for you.)

When you exercise mobility you open yourself to experiences that lack the security of “regular life”. In many ways the transportation system may fail or perform less well than expected. This is always a potential exercise in spirit. You generally do well with this, but you would have had trouble managing equanimity if you hadn’t gotten to the seat you are in now, this day.

Mobility brings you in contact with more who are complete strangers or completely unknown to you. It also brings the challenge of being with people who have changed over times when they were previously known. This also has spiritual elements – trust, proper inquiry, genuine concern for others, relating to others who are not what you expect.

Be sensitive also to how others are responding to you. Your recollection of the incident of the young woman saying, about your good performance – “You didn’t miss much” – is as important as the applause and the compliments. Resist temptations to cast such judgers aside and stay among those who value you. Mobility can move you into uncomfortable, “unrewarding” circumstances. Still, each such situation may be one of growth that could not have come with just comfort.

Mobility also implies moving into fields and sub-fields that are away from your developed expertise… or that are not valued by some with influence. Only a spirit of mobility can take you successful and purposefully into such realms. Never be afraid to be mobile in this way. Oh, don’t be foolhardy… or show lack of humility at what must be done to become competent. Remember that in your first year of teaching you were the one judged mobile enough to take on Algebra in mid-year. It is, of course, adaptability also, but mobility embodies the willingness to move from relative security to challenge.

Listen now to some cautions about this mobility of which I have spoken so positively. Mobility can leave you feeling lonely, which is an excessive concern for self. In any new situation I am with you… and, often, other spirits also. But loneliness is a possibility.