David's Desk is my opportunity to share thoughts and tools for the spiritual journey. These letters are my personal insights and opinions and do not necessarily reflect the sentiments or thoughts of any other person in Lorian or of Lorian as a whole. If you wish to share this letter with others, please feel free to do so; however, the material is ©2022 by David Spangler. If you no longer wish to receive these letters, please let us know at info@Lorian.org.
Responsibility
In 1973, my wife, Julia, and I were in London taking part in a conference. We had an evening free and were out walking, taking in the sights and sound of that world city at night. We came upon a large crowd all standing behind a line of limousines waiting outside a movie theater where the movie Lost Horizon about the mystical, mythical city of Shangri-La was being premiered. Large floodlights illuminated the scene and cast their beams into the night sky. There was a buzz of excitement in the crowd. They were obviously waiting for something rather than lining up to go into the theater. We asked someone what was happening and were told that Queen Elizabeth was attending the premier and was soon to come out. Everyone was there to see and to greet her. Julie and I decided we would wait to see her, too.
Across the street from the theater was a small park surrounded by an iron fence. Holding on to the pole of a streetlight, we were able to climb up and stand on the top of the fence, which allowed us to see over the heads of the crowd. Although there were police present in the crowd, no one seemed to mind us being there. Everyone’s attention was focused on the theater entrance, so no one may have even seen us.
We had only been there a minute or two when a sigh went through the crowd. It was at that point that the Queen came out, accompanied by her husband, Philip. She was wearing an all-white gown that looked encrusted with diamonds, and she had a tiara in her hair. When the light from the floodlights hit her, she suddenly burst into radiance, as if she had transformed into a being of Light. It was breathtaking, and an audible gasp went up from all the people there. I think it was especially dramatic for Julie and me given our elevated vantage point.
As she moved toward the waiting limousine, she smiled and waved to the throng, and they cheered back. You could feel the love flowing out from these people towards this woman and her love flowing back. For me, the energy was palpable.
That was nearly fifty years ago, but the memory came back to me as I watched Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, seeing the thousands of people who lined the streets in mourning and in celebration of her life. She was a truly global figure, a point of connection for millions of people. Whether they supported the British monarchy or not, people could still admire and love Elizabeth for her seventy years of dedication and responsibility to something larger than herself.
This word, responsibility, was one that kept coming back to mind for me throughout the days of mourning for the Queen. We all have responsibilities, to families, to jobs, to our society, and our own well-being. But these days, we tend to hear more about “rights” than about “responsibilities.” The gaining or losing of rights is a major issue for many people, and so it should be. But an acknowledgment of our mutual responsibilities to each other can get lost in the clamor. Milenko Matanovic, my good friend and one of the original founders of Lorian, said to me recently that America has a Bill of Rights but what we also need is a Bill of Responsibilities, something that lays out the duties we have to each other, to the nation, and to the world we all share.
When the American Constitution was written, the ideas of public service and civic responsibilities were taken for granted. The struggle was to obtain rights; responsibility was assumed. But I don’t think we can make such an assumption today, especially when so many political factions fight to secure their own power and their own point of view with little regard for the well-being of society as a whole. This is one reason Queen Elizabeth was held in high regard for her ability to transcend factionalism in support of all her subjects. She modeled responsibility for the whole, not just for a single part.
Given the world condition, such responsibility for the whole is precisely what is needed, not just by one or two leaders or a few exceptional people but by all of us. Though it hardly seems so from the headlines and news that confront us daily, the time when the right to act without responsibility for humanity and the world as a whole has passed. What the Queen modeled in an institutional way is a quality we all need to embody and express in the years ahead: how to serve and be responsible for that which is larger than ourselves. We don’t need to be a monarch to do this, but we do need to love the world in which we live and all the lives who share it with us.
An Experiment
One of the advantages of David’s Desk being digital is that I can do things I couldn’t if it were printed. My Lorian colleague and friend, James Tousignant, and I do podcasts together. He thought it might be interesting to you, my Reader, if he and I were to have a discussion around the theme of that month’s essay and then add the audio at the end. That way, you could both read my thoughts for that month and also listen to me talk about them with James. So, without further ado, here is this month’s conversation. I hope you enjoy it and the added dimension it brings to David’s Desk.