May 2
To come to everything, desire to possess nothing. To be everything, wish to be nothing in any regard. The way there leads through not-having.
Ascent of Mount Carmel (freely rendered)
Listening mode
To come to everything, desire to possess nothing. To be everything, wish to be nothing in any regard. The way there leads through not-having.
In a group you often have a role without ever having chosen it. You're simply the one who thinks of everything, or the one who lightens the mood. The role is comfortable. It tells the others what they can expect of you, and tells you where your place is.
It gets strange when a newcomer takes it off your hands. He remembers the reservation before you think of it. Really, that's a relief. Still, you feel a small pang, as if someone had taken away something you never even wanted to own.
Without the role, sitting at the table feels unfamiliar. You don't quite know what to pay attention to, and so you notice more: a hesitation in an answer, a quiet joke you would otherwise have missed because in your head you were already on to the next item on the programme.
You could easily turn this into a resolution: no role at all any more. But that too would be one, just harder to recognise. At the next get-together the newcomer isn't there, nobody has thought of the reservation, and your hand is already reaching for the phone.
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