Hero's: One In Billions

6/7/2020

Michael Easterling

You say you’ve never heard of Lao Tzu?  Loud Who?

Of course you haven’t unless you lived in China.

It seems he roamed the roads, forests and mountains there 

circa 2600 years ago. 

Translated, his name means ‘Old Boy’ or ‘Ancient Child.’

Moses, Jesus and Mohammed described God  anthropomorphically, the Ultimate unlimited Male.

Not so Lao Tzu.

He taught that God was subtle wonder within mysterious darkness, beyond words and understanding;

unnameable simplicity before and after everything;

without boundaries not confined to space or time,

the dark well of everything;

not in the sky but in the heart.

He taught that existence is not dualistic.

that everything is One, inextricably connected,

whether it be time and space, light and darkness, fire and water,

animal and human, plant and animal, male and female,

joy and sorrow, life and death.

All one.

In regard to living he taught that we should be like newborn babes, 

like un-carved wood, 

have unlimited curiosity,

embrace softness, weakness and yielding,

put ourselves last

and be humble above all things.

In regard to others he taught that we should love ourselves 

no more than others; 

we should be generous, abandon no-one and harm no-one.

He taught that our enemies are our enemies second,

our brothers and sisters first.

As he exchanged with young and old, rich and poor, and with sages and simpletons,

as he walked the roads or sat by streams in the forests and thought his thoughts

he had no idea that his thoughts would some day set the bar

for all ultimate progressive and mystical religions.

Lao Tzu was a newborn babe, a fawn, a dove, an eagle.

Confucius met him once and said: “This day I have seen Lao Tzu. And he is a Dragon.”

He was One in Billions.

And not even Hollywood could make up someone like Leonardo di Vinci.

How can one person invent or foresee everything from

kites to helicopters to airplanes

crossbows to machine guns to triple barrel canons

self propelled carts to armored cars to robots

organs to fans?

How can someone be skilled as a mathematician, architect, writer and musician?

How can someone have a comprehensive knowledge of 

botany, paleontology, geology, astronomy, anatomy and

cryptography?

But when he picked up a pencil,a piece of charcoal or

selected various paints, picked up a brush and 

stood before a palate,

something greater than magic happened.

He was able to capture reality.

He was able to capture longings and dreams.

He was able to capture heartbreak and sorrow.

He was able to capture life and death.

He was able to capture infinity and eternity.

I stood before the Mona Lisa and Salvatore Mundi and was mesmerized, hypnotized.

I stood in the refectory at the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie and was overwhelmed by The Last Supper: 

I am haunted by the memory of it today..

He left the world perfect sketches and drawings.

He left portraits of people who are alive,

with backgrounds beyond time and space.

He could do anything and everything.

He was One In Billions.

And to be sure one would have to say

Albert Einstein was a brilliant professor.

A professor at top universities including Princeton, 

a fine musician playing his violin once with the Julliard String Quartet.

“I live my…dreams in music; I see my life in terms of music; I get most joy in my life in music.”

An outspoken Civil Rights activist, 

a prominent pacifist and socialist so that J Edgar Hoover kept a large file  on him,

a lover of the United States and a great friend of Israel

prompting Prime Minister Ben Gurion to offer hm

the presidency of Israel.

But what made Albert so great was he categorically 

didn’t see things as others do

whether it was a wall and ceiling coming together,

or the moon and stars,

or a comet flashing across the sky.

And when he thought of time and space or heights or depths

he thought of ruins, hieroglyphics indecipherable to the rest of us.

Most of us live in a world in which our minds

are filled with ballgame, grocery store, Medicare and grandchildren thoughts.

Albert’s mind was filled Brownian Motion, Photoelectric Effect, Relativity, Micro and Macro Universe, eternity and infinity thoughts.

And as Albert looked into the heavens or thought of time and space more and more he began to visualize an equation

incomprehensible to most of us:

E=mc2  or  

Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.

What?

It’s only how our Solar System works.

It’s only how our Galaxy works.

It’s only how the Universe works.

It’s only how Creation works.

Little Albert wasn’t just a brilliant professor,

His thinking and discoveries changed the world. 

He was One In Billions.