There is no doubt I was upstaged by an ass yesterday. People bought a lot of books for me to sign, but if you could have seen the faces of people coming by when they saw Simon, there was no question who they were most excited to me.
Many of the hundreds of people who streamed through the farm yesterday – almost all – told me that they got up every morning to the sound of Simon and what I call his call to life. This connects deeply with me, as I believe I am also working to answer the call to life, and I know Maria feels the same way. It is what our lives are about, what my books and blog is about, what our work and art is about. People love Simon, they love his story, and the idea of him.
Why is this? Because he didn’t give up on life, when he easily could have. Because they witnessed a powerful thing, his determination to live, and they saw before their own eyes that the spirit can be as powerful a force as cruelty, deprivation and misfortune. There is no perfect life or easy life. Our lives are marked and punctuated by challenge, fear and circumstance. The question is not whether we will struggle and suffer – the question is how we will respond.
Every day, I ask myself what my purpose is.
Is it to make money? To be a bestseller? To build up my smoldering retirement account? To earn enough to pay for tests and pills and anxiety? To join in the general dance, the prophesies of doom, the struggle stories, the symphony of laments, complaints, resentments and suspicion. There is always a spot open in that orchestra, but I prefer my own song. I see life clearly, and am not fooled by it. But I also see the joy, opportunity and reward of it. No stock market or political party can take that away.
Simon teaches me that the call to life means this. We are not here long, our time is precious and not a minute of it ought be wasted on fear, anger, surrender to he expectations and will of others. When Simon was found on that farm that night, not one person who saw him – vet, animal control, police – thought he would be alive in the morning. He did not listen and could not hear others ideas about his life, so he simply chose to live, and on a sunny October Sunday, hundreds of people came to bring him apples, cookies and carrots – a pilgrimage to the shrine of Simon, and the true meaning of the call to live.
This is, I think, what a spiritual life is. Turning inward for your idea of yourself, your life, owning it, and taking the great leap of faith to live it. That is Simon’s message for me.
Lips to the world. And live your life.
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Having some issues with linking the blog to You Tube, so I am putting Simon’s bray up on Facebook and linking to it from here. I hope to have the video issue resolved this week. I also included some video inside the Pig Barn show, so that people who couldn’t make it could see it. People really loved the art, and left with a lot of it.