This post isn't about the Beatles nor about their music. It's just about something George Harrison said and what it might suggest to us.
"People always say to me, I'm the Beatle that changed the most, but really, that's what I see life is about. You have to change."I was invited to a new friend's home for lunch, and as she prepared the meal she licked her fingers and put the tasting spoon back in the pot. She dropped food on the floor and put it back on the plate. Her large dog had his feet up on the counter. When I called her out on this lack of kitchen hygiene she said, "Well that's the way I am - take it or leave it."
That kind of response isn't unusual today: defensive, protective. rationalized, prideful. An individual person can be like this or a family, even a nation. We don't often hear: "You know, you're right, I never thought of it that way before."
George Harrison wrote the song, "I, Me, Mine" because he was fed-up with the self-preoccupied Beatle-world he lived in. It's said that he was put-out when the song (directed at over-stated, self-involved people) was used as back-up music for a video of John and Yoko dancing together. And put-out again (or hurt), when John, Paul and Ringo objected to the amount of time needed to learn George's new song while happily spending hours rehearsing a ditty for the Doctor Pepper album.
George had changed. After the group split up he never even referred to himself as a former Beatle. His own son found out from a schoolmate that his father had been one of the four. He only called himself a gardener. And when someone paid him a compliment: "George, your garden is just fabulous," he answered, "It's not mine, it belongs to all of us." He wasn't thinking he had the garden because he'd made lots of money off the fans but that as human beings we're all inhabited by one common spirit. He thought "I" should be spelled "i"
"....but really that's what I see life is about. You have to change."
The people who read Catholic priest blogs are probably good people. So what's to change? I'd suggest the change has to do with our awareness of interior things. One monk says that First World is sleepwalking: every day we do our thing, complete our work, make our money, solve some problems, manage the hassles, keep up with the e-mails and voice mails...
A lot of life is missed that way - like the sleepwalker who when he wakes up doesn't know where he's/she's been - unless there's been damage along the way.
So the change George referred to might well have been inner. This shouldn't startle the Christian, Jesus said, "Unless you be born again..." (John 3:3)
For all that we possess, all that we have access to, for all the freedoms we claim, very many of us are still riddled with anxieties, depression, anger, addictions, even dysfunction. One way of stepping into real change (of being re-born) is to ask ourselves why? And not to accept, "I don't know" as an answer.
These wounded or hollow aspects of ourselves, that our culture tends to medicate, shop, drink or eat away, invite a life-time of change, growth or second birth-ing. And no one should think, "Oh I'm too old for all of that," or "I'm too busy..." What a shame it would be to draw near to life's end never having examined my life from the inside.
"....but really, that's what I see life is about. You have to change."
The people who read Catholic priest blogs are probably good people. So what's to change? I'd suggest the change has to do with our awareness of interior things. One monk says that First World is sleepwalking: every day we do our thing, complete our work, make our money, solve some problems, manage the hassles, keep up with the e-mails and voice mails...
A lot of life is missed that way - like the sleepwalker who when he wakes up doesn't know where he's/she's been - unless there's been damage along the way.
So the change George referred to might well have been inner. This shouldn't startle the Christian, Jesus said, "Unless you be born again..." (John 3:3)
For all that we possess, all that we have access to, for all the freedoms we claim, very many of us are still riddled with anxieties, depression, anger, addictions, even dysfunction. One way of stepping into real change (of being re-born) is to ask ourselves why? And not to accept, "I don't know" as an answer.
- What am I really so angry about?
- What's going on with me that I remain in this addiction?
- Why won't I let go of these old memories?
- What's the real reason for these un-relenting fears?
- Why do I consistently run and hide from challenges?
- Why am I so needy - so dependent?
- Why do I continue to accept this abuse?
- Why am I so un-creative about my own life?
These wounded or hollow aspects of ourselves, that our culture tends to medicate, shop, drink or eat away, invite a life-time of change, growth or second birth-ing. And no one should think, "Oh I'm too old for all of that," or "I'm too busy..." What a shame it would be to draw near to life's end never having examined my life from the inside.
"....but really, that's what I see life is about. You have to change."
