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WHO WE ARE GIVES US OUR SIGNIFICANCE
By Dalton Roberts
Chattanooga Times Free Press
5-24-02
It's not what the world says about us that give us significance. Or even
what we do. It's who we are.
I realized this when I heard that John Jackson is going to have a
Piedmont Blues Museum named for him over in his hometown in Virginia. He
recently died in his eighties after a long career as a blues man.
I was fortunate enough to be on the Blue Ridge Guitar Festival with him
a few years ago. More importantly, to jam with him backstage. Yet more
importantly, to get to know what a great and good man he was.
I am glad they are building a museum for him and will make a financial
contribution to the project. And I will always treasure the memory of
watching his hot licks up close and hearing him laugh as he told old
tales of the blues trail. But sensing his goodness means much more to me
than any of that. Someone's soul goodness can reach right out and wrap
itself around you.
Freud taught that sex lent significance to our lives. Adler said it's
self-esteem. Karen Horney said it is meaning we seek. Meeting John
Jackson convinced me that the key to life is sensing the significance of
who we are. He was so content to be a blues man without pride, apology
or adornment. I loved him most when his John Jackson-ness bubbled out
all over him and sparkled up my soul. It was his being that gave him
significance.
As inadequate as I feel to describe it, I know what I am trying to say
may be the most important concept I have ever written about. I know so
many people who feel insignificant. Some of the most significant people
I know feel insignificant. Can we help someone realize their
significance?
Meeting John helped me answer that question. We can only kindle feelings
of significance in others by being who we are so completely that they
take heart from watching us and decide to be who they are. Doing and
being are two different things. We cannot do anything of significance
until we are who we are.
John was a kind and gentle man who passionately loved the blues. He
said, "I used to walk thirty miles with a guitar on my back."
When we get to the level of desire that we will walk thirty miles to do
what we love, we learn to do it well. And in this focus of mind and
soul, we develop our mental and spiritual qualities.
Mrs. Langley, our high school nurse, taught me early about the superior
power of being over doing. Yes, she was a good nurse. But it was her
loving heart that healed you. When you went to her feeling real bad, she
would pour honey all over you. It was "Honey, you just lean back
and let me take your temperature...Don't you worry, Honey, you are going
to be just fine...Oh Honey, I keep hearing so many good things about
you." The honey just kept flowing but it was not feigned or
artificial. It was the cup of her inner goodness overflowing. By the
time you left her little nursing station, you felt like the most
significant person in the world.
Whether you feel like it or not, you and your life are significant. If
only one square inch of your mile wide soul is authentic, start living
and sharing from that one inch. Be that one square inch. Osmosis will
set in and it will spread like warm butter and maple syrup until all the
pancakes of your being are good and delicious.
Maybe I could have learned all this from some high-priced personal
development course. Instead, I learned it all in less than a day just
hanging around an old black blues man who was as sweet as apple butter
on a fresh-buttered biscuit. Goodbye and God bless you, Brother John.
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