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To allow the IQ and grades in
school, along with social and
economic status, and also
physical appearances, to lead us
to think of some persons (or of
ourselves) as "ordinary", is, in
the first place, a violation of
the equal presence of all that
God is in every person, barring
none!
From my own experience, I
think it may be that we judge
ourselves and others as "less"
ordinary or "more" ordinary than
others - in this case "less" is
plus and "more" is minus.
One person may feel "more"
ordinary in comparison with an
Olympic champion or an Itzhak
Perlman, or an Einstein, or a
Robert Schuller, but may see
certain others as "more" ordinary
than oneself. So I think there is
a lot of ego involved here.
Years ago I had an experience
that is an example of what I have
just written:
I had been considered one of
the more successful Unity
ministers and was asked to train
people at Unity Training School.
One of the courses I taught was
Organization and Operation of
Unity Churches, something I
thought I knew quite a bit about
(ego). One of the assignments I
gave to my very first group of
students was to present services
such as baptism, infant
christenings, funerals, weddings.
To my astonishment, these persons
who had previously received no
training and had no experience in
such things, came up with ideas
that I recognized were as good as
or better than mine! This was a
breakthrough for me and the
beginning of my conviction that
THERE ARE NO "ORDINARY"
PEOPLE!
So on a recent Sunday in our
Victoria church I was prepared
for a similar performance by a
group of graduates from a
year-long study of the Quest
program, part of Unity's
Continuing Education curriculum.
They delivered sermonettes and
conducted the meditation and all
other aspects of the entire
morning service. Though they had
been studying and receiving some
teaching help, their performances
were of such a high caliber that
I was ecstatic - and I remembered
my experience in the Training
School. Wow! again I saw so
powerfully THERE ARE NO
"ORDINARY" PEOPLE!
Part of my belief system
through the years has been to
assume that whatever one member
of the human species can do is
theoretically possible for any
other member - and you can see
the validity of this, at least
providing that the member has the
time and the right conditions to
develop the ability. But recently
I watched a video that I had
recorded of the life and career
of Danny Kaye and realized that
my idea misses the point of what
life is all about: Danny Kaye is
Danny Kaye and Donald O'Connor
(the one writing this piece) is
Donald O'Connor. The danger point
is to fall back if we can't do
what Danny Kaye (or any "great"
person) can do!
There is a message here for
all of us. It is not that we
should all try to emulate or
duplicate the performance and
achievement of the great and
outstanding persons among us, but
that we should not lie back and
play "dead dog."
Individually we are justified
in tapping the God-reservoir
within, in contributing our ideas
and suggestions at work, in our
homes, and in all our activities.
No other advice is more
spiritually sound than to tell us
to be ourselves, to let our light
shine, to spread our love
around.
Organizations such as
churches, and all businesses and
workplaces, should stop treating
most of their people as
"ordinary," but rather they
should allow for participation on
a much-expanded scale.
The January 2004 edition of
December Discover Magazine
includes a piece on my very
point. They are discussing a new
development in the use of the
internet. The piece is titled
Internet-Era
Democracy. Can the World
Wide Web give ordinary people a
shot at true populism? It is
written from the perspective of
how ordinary people can actually
transfor the way candidates
develop their platforms in U.S.
elections. Large groups of
persons are now contributing
ideas through Meetup.com. and
open-source software. Software
developers have "discovered that
a thousand minds all contributing
small pieces to a project trumps
20 geniuses on a payroll."
Geniuses perhaps could be
defined as persons who refused to
think of themselves as "ordinary"
people and thus became open to
God, the genius that is ready to
do marvelous works in all of us,
given the opportunity.
Let's beginl
Don
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