011 – Greatness and the Tree

If a man achieves the impossible and no one’s there to recognize it, is it considered greatness?

The first question, an age old brain teaser often recited in the hallways and playgrounds of elementary schools…at least when I was running around outside and passing in the hallways pushing the limitations as to what my teacher would consider a straight enough line to warrant her not coming back and shooing me into a more obedient position.

I remember a friend telling me in third grade this question, adopting a heightened sense of enlightenment for he had contemplated its many meanings.  And by that, I mean his older brother told him the question the day before and explained the potentially apparent conundrum.

To my five year old self, and still to this day, the answer seemed far more obvious and less complicated than the asker intended.  A tree falls making a vibration in the atmosphere that shifts certain molecules in its wake to the degree that the wave’s power is greater than the power required to keep the surrounding particles still….yes, I came up with that answer when I was five…aka it still makes a sound the ground can feel.

Question 2

The thought and answer pattern should still holds true in this case.  Greatness is intrinsically great regardless of a third party observer, or even the one acting out the greatness.  The creation of greatness is not relative by any means and therefor is not dependent on any party opining on it.

Again, greatness is not relative.  It is performance at a state that is independent of time, situation, person, or extenuating circumstances.

Society has framed this concept and put it on shoes, tv, and every commercial application possible.  It has defined it.  Built it up, tore it down, and constantly judged what is and what isn’t great.  This tendency is natural for the egoic mind to rank things as better and worse, and naturally those ranked the best for a sustained period of time are considered in an echelon of “greatness.”

All too often, young men and women seek ranks in this tier for the status it alone provides.  A luring temptation, but fleeting; lasting only as long as the performance is maintained at the top relative to the rest of the world.

The rest of the world…that’s a large field of competition, a mindset that is reactionary rather than intentional.  Self-defeating rather than sustainable.  To be the best is a timeless concept that churns many committing their lives to its pursuit.  But undoubtedly someone else will come along, another generation even, and pass you.  Your skills not at sharp, body not as sustained.

But greatness is an act in and of itself.  Anyone and anyone can act in greatness.  IT is a level of consciousness and energy towards an act, the bearer of which is merely the vessel to transmit the action.  Therefore, the act of greatness is embodied by no one’s ego but rather passes through one body to the next, just as quickly as sound emanates from that falling tree.

It is not the public’s recognition that makes it so, but rather the energy transmitted that makes both a sound and greatness.