Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Yesterday I read this line of Rumi's, "Sell your cleverness, purchase wonder." If I ever need a reminder of how to get out of my head and back into my heart, I do believe that line will forever do it for me.

It is funny, or maybe not, how attached I have been to my cleverness over the years. I have hung onto it like a life preserver throughout my life, believing that without it I will drown. Even in this moment I worry, "will this post be clever enough to keep their attention?" I give up. I'm going for wonder.

In Iran, there are people who roam the streets peddling Hafiz poems (another Sufi poet). You pay them some money, and they pick one from the pile, and read it aloud. The one they pick IS the exact one meant for you.

Here is the one I just picked for you (swear I just picked it at random):

The Mule Got Drunk and Lost in Heaven

The mind is ever a tourist
Wanting to touch and buy new things
Then toss them into an already
Full closet.

So I craft my words into those guides
That will offer you something fresh
From the Hidden's Tavern.

Few things are stronger than
The mind's need for diverse experience.

I am glad
Not many men or women can remain
Faithful lovers to the unreal.

There is a kind of adultery
That God encourages:

Your spirit needs to leave the bed
Of fear.

The gross, subtle, the mental worlds
Become as a worthless husband.

Women need
To utilize their superior intelligence
About love

So that their hour's legacy
Can make us all stronger and more clement.

Sometimes a poem happens like this one:

The mule I sit on while I recite
Starts off in one direction
But then gets drunk

And lost in
Heaven.

from The Gift: Poems by Hafiz The Great Sufi Master; translated by Daniel Ladinsky

Wonderfully,
Kelly
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5 comments:

  1. Greg Martin2:18 PM

    Oh to be clever. It seems that cleverness is rewarded by our society, if we use TV as a guide. There are so many clever people saying clever things.

    I can also remember the awkward situtation of being introduced to some notable, and feeling compelled to say something 'clever' so as to not be forgotten as soon as the sensation of the handshake faded from their hand. Mostly, I have given up trying to be clever because cleverness rarely boils up to spill out of my mouth. It just isn't there.

    I have tried ernestness, because it seems more genuine, but that can get wearing, mostly on the recipient. But I like this idea of trading clever for wonder.

    Often, I am in a regular state of wonder. That is wonder in its many forms. Rapturess wonder is always good, but sometimes needs work, or at least inspiration. There is a bemused wonder. How is it that ants seem to invade just at that time you are most vulnerable? For isntance, when having stayed up late, and you have left the dinner dishes out over night. Then there is the exasperated, angry wonder at the duplicity, callousness and agrandizement of our elected politicians. Most days I experience all three.

    I always lapse into a state of rapturess wonder when I look at pictures from the Hubble telescope. I see billions of stars, immense distances; so much there and my life and this planet seem so small. What secrets are hidden out there? There is nothing clever to be said to the unverse. It just keeps expanding no matter any of us says or does. I wonder. . .

    And I will admit, rapturess wonder happens when I look in my dog's eyes and see another being that looks out at me with a perspective that may be wholly more loving, accepting and preceptive than I can ever acheive. My dog will never laugh at my cleverness. She just loves me, knows exactly when it it feeding time without a watch, and is always ready to go on a walk with me. I wonder. . .

    I am overwhelmed by wonder when I am up in the mountains and look at the trees and granite of the Sierras. I wonder at the ability of trees and rocks to endure so much, silently. Any cleverness I can contrive makes no impression on these rocks and trees, it is less than a breath of air, or a drop of rain to them. I wonder . . .

    Sometimes I can impress my wife with being a little clever, some joke or comment, that cuts many ways. But I like it most when I can share my wonder with Catherine. I can share something far more profound, I can be free with my vulnerability because I admit I don't know. We connect on level that is deep and shared and, well, wonderful. I wonder . . .

    Clever is about erecting a defense, closing the vulnerable gaps in our ego. Wonder is about throwing the gates wide open. Clever people like people in a state of wonder because they are easy targets. The clever ones can contrast their knowing cleverness against the innocent and seemingly open ingnorance of those captured by wonder. I think the analogy of clever residing in the head and wonder in the heart is very apt. Clever is about being in my head, a chess game. Wonder is about being receptive and allowing something from the outside coming in and touching my soul.

    I will resist trying to close by saying something clever and just be happy that today I could wonder at how beautiful the cool air of the morning smelled today.

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  2. Kelly Carlin8:56 PM

    Dearest Greg,
    I want to thank you for your immense heart, and your brilliant mind (not the one that MUST be clever but the one that is clever no matter what it does) showing up here.

    I love so much of it. But my favorite, what took my breath away was: "There is nothing clever to be said to the universe." This to me is what it is to be in relationship with what Hafiz would call The Beloved, some call it God. It it the I/Thou relationship that Martin Buber wrote about. Yes. I stand it awe of the universe, and there is nothing clever to be said to it. It doesn't care about my ego's needs.

    Keep commenting. I love the community we are making here.

    love,
    Kelly

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  3. Greg Martin1:02 PM

    Kelly, you are very kind and generous in your comments. All I am trying to do is to refelct back to you all the heart and brillance that radiates from you through your writing. It is time that someone tries to give back at least a little of what your are trying to put out there every day.

    Love, Greg

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  4. Anonymous6:31 PM

    Being clever can be exhausting mostly, in my opinion. I'd rather be in a state of wonder, which is not nearly as intellectual, but definitely more adventurous.

    Kelly, you’re so clever that I’m afraid to post here for that pure simple fact. Can you tell me the difference between clever and wit?

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  5. Kelly Carlin9:59 PM

    Michelle,

    Hmmmm. Clever and wit? I fear I'm not clever enough to know. But I am courageous enough to wrestle with it.

    In order to be witty, one must be clever. But in order to be clever, one does not have to be witty. Wit has an element of humor, while cleverness has some other kind of edge.

    Karl Rove may be clever, but I know he will never be witty.

    Some online dictionary has clever as: 1. mentally bright; having sharp or quick intelligence; able. And witty as: possessing wit in speech or writing; amusingly clever in perception and expression.

    And you are no longer allowed to be afraid of anything. You say you were too afraid to post, and yet you did. There.

    This is about conversation, not about approval or comparing. Read my earlier posts about my own dance with these.

    I'm so glad you are here.

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