One of my favorite movies is a Coen brothers movie, True Grit
It comes up for me 4-5 times a year, to ponder who had the true grit… the little girl or the big drunkard marshal? 1
Which, as it turns out, isn’t the right question.
Today the last scene, where the now middle aged woman comes to say thank you to the marshal… who died in the meantime, and takes his remains home… to be honored at her home.
And that is when I got: I failed to be grateful. I failed to be humble. I failed to understand what true grit was…
Because it is not who pulls the trigger and kills the bad guy, it is who rides through the night to save a life… your life, in this case.
Maybe she, the little girl, got knocked conscious like I just did… and realized 30 years too late to be grateful.
Maybe the 2000 year old Chinese poem is about me, but me being on the other side… the side that says: we did it ourselves… never noticing, never acknowledging the teaching, the guidance, the generosity.
Gratitude and appreciation is at the core missing capacities for humans, and as you can see, even when you have it, to some degree, it doesn’t open up fully all at once.
I saw that movie seven years ago… and just got the message a few minutes ago.
My soul correction is “Forget Thyself” and how accurate it is… I was only looking at myself (identifying with the little girl” and getting all teary eyes at how brave she was…) failing to appreciate anyone or anything.
Having the whole life about me, myself, and I.
Soul correction is the ultimate journey, the ultimate path.
And humility is the lock that unlocks the door to the path.
Until you master humility to at least 30 percent, you are not on the path.
And even while on the path, if you can keep your attention on prying the door more open so more of you can get on the path, you are not really doing the work.
One of the distinctions that has lead me to this discovery is the distinction that we all have two selves. The self we fancy ourselves to be, and the self we actually are.
The further those are from each other, the more delusional we are, the more sensitive we are to criticism, and the less we can actually move… because when you are protecting your illusory, delusional, precious I you cannot, you are not free to move.
The starting point measurements show it accurately where you are… and how far those two selves are from each other.
Recently I have managed to cause some dramatic movements for my students. And I am moved, I am grateful, and I have a lot of thanks to say.
As you can see, I am a month behind… I am at Thanksgiving… while you are celebrating Christmas.
Christmas is the birthday of you being excused from taking personal responsibility for your misery, while what works, what allows you to move towards “salvation” is the opposite: seeing and owning what you can about who you are, what you do and don’t do, where you lack, and where you shine.
Moses, whether he was an actual person or just a myth, shares my soul correction.
Moses got to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land, but he himself wasn’t allowed to enter.
You learn where you can… My job is to stand on the shoulder of the ones going before me, including Moses and learn from their mistakes… and learn from movies, books, so I can see where I fall short.
So I can go, all the way, with you, to the Promised Land.
- One of the main reason I love the Coen brothers in this movie is because they give opportunities to famous actors who never had a chance to prove they can act, an opportunity to act. Like Matt Damon. OMG…
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