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Take Time to 'Know Thyself'
Almost every weekend over this past summer a group of my friends would get together to play ultimate frisbee in a nearby park. We played hard and had a lot of fun doing so, but sooner or later someone was bound to get hurt. My best friend, Nick, was hit in the eye with a frisbee from less than a foot away. I saw blood on the ground, and the rest of our friends started rushing over to see what was wrong. People started talking quickly back and forth: 'Lean his head back.' 'Someone call his parents.' 'I will go get some water.' 'Does anyone have a towel?' I remember just standing a few feet away, not knowing what to do, but anxious to do anything…anything. A friend who was in pre-med offered to drive him to the nearby hospital, and before I knew it, without even getting a chance to ask him how he felt or tell him I was there if he needed me, Nick was gone.
In this situation and others like it, I really identify with the woman in How Can I Help who is struggling to help her father with cancer. She says, "It was hard seeing him going downhill, harder still feeling so clumsy, not sure what to do, not sure what to say" (18). It's this same insecurity when I pass a homeless person on the street, or when I go to visit an elderly relative in a nursing home. I love that Dass and Gorman explore this insecurity and recognize it as an impasse that must be overcome, but how much harder it is to actually get to this point of clarity and awareness!
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I suppose when it comes down to it, it just takes time. Time spent actually thinking about…your thoughts. Time spent figuring out where you stand on issues and how you react in different situations. As the Greek temple at Delphi (and the UT tower) reminds us, we must 'Know Thyself.' Unfortunately, it's easy to not spend any time on that at all. After all, there are plenty of other things to occupy our time and our thoughts. I find myself with music on constantly, so I never have silence in which to think, or playing puzzles or video games in any spare time I may have. We don't think about scheduling time to meditate and reflect in our daily routines; at least I don't. Perhaps we should start, though. Maybe then, the next time I end up in a situation like the one with Nick, I will have the clarity to know "what is being asked, what fears have been inhibiting [me], and, finally, what might really help" (69).
