🔵 By Thomas Riffenburg. Photo by lauragrafie.
Since the beginning of time, man has begun life upon the lowest level of the earth. Helpless as babes, unable yet to move, they can do naught but lie upon the ground. As time goes on, the babe crawls, then achieves the ability to walk. Effort was put forth in each stage of man’s development, and it was only through this effort that man achieved the ability to rise off the ground. The achievement of mobility placed all of the earth under man’s domain of travel. Something else was earned as well, something not thought of, or else taken for granted, man’s shadow.
All of nature shares in this struggle alongside man, of achieving a shadow. Whether as man, where one must come to an understanding of coordination, strengthening of muscles, and so on, or of a seed which must push through soil, withstand the wind, all of creation struggles upward. All of us are a product of what has come before. We are an accumulation of the past, made whole now within our individual lives. In this sense, wherever our shadow is cast, there our ancestors and the past dwell.
As I walk, so my ancestors walk within my shadow, they dance and play, continue to be, for I am. As I walk, all the effort throughout time to live, to move, to survive and provide for the future, continue to exist within my shadow. All that I am dwells within my silent companion. Every inner effort put forth and attained by them is inherent within me already, I need only to ever continue to progress upward, not decline. I believe all who came before us, saw our shadows as a wisdom to be needed, one that was ever kept within the sight of ones eyes. For as man grew upwards, farther away went the ground and the higher the risk of injury should one fall to the ground.
Physically this is true, but spiritually as well.
Our shadows are able without words to ever remind us of humiliates place within life. What goes up is ever able to come back down. We hear story and tale and poem alike tell of tragedies upon man when pride seeks to elevate man to a position of supposed unmatched heights, and how utterly are they all cast down to the ground.
Today man again seeks to soar upon heights reserved for deities, though today it es en masse. They assume to take to themselves positions of unmatched greatness. They create themselves into gods, and consider humility as worthless. They find none above them within their hearts and minds. Can a world where every man is a self-proclaimed god be a good world? Can we survive such a clash of ultimate egos, or can only destruction be its end result? Can the absence of humility and the promotion of pride be the thing that will finally bring peace and goodness to the lands?
In a world where one is believed to be above another, that is the creation of men not as worthy or good as another. A world without humility is a great sadness. Pride is the easiest of all to offend. Like the people of old, I strive to maintain a constant visual upon my shadow. I find its constant presence my ultimate source of wisdom. It teaches me equality of men; it shows me from whence I came, and at the same time shows me that should I attempt to place my abode within the stars, how great the fall would be. It shows me the truth of the easily offended pride, and the equal truth of the unoffendable humility, thus the more precious humility is.
There is a mighty lesson to be learned from the sight of our shadows, one of great benefit to our spirit, but there is also a great tragic lesson to be learned should we attempt by pride to leave it behind. So much the easier is it to cast such a thing to the side, for pride in all its falseness promises so much. The slightest taste of power is like the strongest of drugs, hypnotic in its enticement. While it’s opposite nature, the lowly humility, promises nothing, but instead shows the struggle required to attain its form. Either action requires effort, yet only one effort is capable of creating lasting substance.