Learned Anything?

Part of my past

It’s funny how in my “so-called” enlightened state, petty things like vanity still get in my way. Speaking with an old friend, he spoke of showing up at my front door one door. Outwardly I laughed about having to find me first, but inward I was terrified. Thinking of how the “mighty” have fallen to abject poverty and little means. Especially considering the potential I always shown. Yet here we are barely keeping it together, literally scraping by with pennies picked up off the street. 

Oh vanity, that wretched little spark of superiority and complacency, where have you gone. Yet here I lay at 4 in the morning with a roof over my head and a good woman next to me. Still worrying about how I appear to the rest of the world. Not to mention how little I think of my old friend, that he would place vanity over friendship. I mean have I really learned anything?
 
More than anything we should value connection, we should value faith, we should value love. “What good is it for you gain the whole world, yet lose your own soul?” (Paraphrased: Mark 8:36 KJV). I've listened to the cries of people much better off than I, cry over broken promises and lost affection. I’ve seen what a few misplaced words can do to the wealthiest men. 

Yet we hide in shame over vanity? What have we truly learned? Life is but a series of moments, each lived across a circle of time. My job is to offer little sprigs of kindness as I walk my path. Listening to those who’s path I cross, giving without need of reward. Crying with those who are in pain. Life is so much more than silver and gold, it’s the light you leave along the way.