The IMPORTANCE Red Herring

I’VE BEEN DOING MORE RESEARCH ON ‘OLD SOULS.’ But this has nothing to do with any take on religion. It is merely a term I’m using for the soul who seriously partakes in accumulating wisdom and living wisely. This learning here is very profound:

With everything, value;

With nothing, importance;

Instantly recognisable,

An eternal ordinance.

Nothing is important, yet everything has value. When we finally chew on this and hence sense the truth-filled taste we discover something really cogent and wonderfully congruent.

The reason nothing is important is it carries a self-perceived flavour about it; importance is entirely subjective. You get a million completely different responses—that’s nothing to hang your hat on.

What is truly important? Those things that are truly “important” have value; and everything has value. And this is the thing we so often lack!

So often we miss the point.

Value never changes just as values never do. They’re eternal. Yet, importance shifts with the waves. Importance shifts as priorities do—entirely unreliable they are in the world reflecting a need for more virtue, alignment and congruence. What is “important” for one person is not important for the next person. Importance is hence bendable and entirely moveable and this isn’t helpful in the real world of necessary virtuous rigidity and the world’s clamouring for same. We need a more reliable standard.

And yet, there’s never a need for stress and anxiety when we are confident about value. When “value” underpins us we’re less “touchy” and surer of ourselves. We all of a sudden know what to look for in life.

Old souls will tend to become quite stressed without this knowledge front-of-mind—their foremost purpose is to seek to reconcile a world in disarray; they note with seriousness their importance. Their compassion drives them to this end. But, the simple turn of philosophy, the slight adjustment in mindset, is all it takes for them to more fully understand. They are then more useful to the world. They learn to reject the folly of importance and seek the value in things.

This is one key to wisdom and correct vision, right here.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.