This time of year we are so aware of the often rabid loyalty to American football (that's too long so I am going to call it "Zoneball" and abbreviate it as Z-ball)to Z-ball teams--first high school, then college, then pro-teams. My Nepali family is equally rabid about football (soccer). At the time of the World Cup my news feed is crammed with World cup songs, fans, and those lovely horns! There's brief reprieve from Super Bowl until the opening of baseball season, with the Stanley Cup shortly thereafter.
Last fall, I watched as one of my "Specials," Curtis, a young man of 10, played his first Z-ball game. The societal indoctrination rituals were amazing: the coaches serious, the refs gathered at the side, the girls as young as 3 and 4 in the cheering squad, one rebellious young woman was on Curtis' team. Yeah! Go, Girl! Was there a male on the cheer squad? No, but there was the Black Panther mascot joining the girls. Mothers and fathers were everywhere, cameras aflashing! I must admit that Curtis looked quite handsome in his uniform and I was proud of the way he played. His younger sister got the best shot of him though.
I have been caught up in this dance, really I have. When my medical school, the Huskies traveled to Florida to play for the group of wealthy alums who were there to also take a cruise, I was there in the Orange Bowl, the lone purple shirt in the West End. When we won, I wondered if I should grab the security guard to get out--it was the first time the 'Canes had been beat in the Orange Bowl in 9 years. My friend, who had not cheered much during the first half when her 'Canes were winning, was upset with me for getting so enthusiastic about winning. She had held back out of deference for me, but I hadn't needed her to hold back. I would have preferred she cheer for her team. I like honesty and especially honest emotion--as long as you aren't violent or hurtful, or if you were, you take steps not to be in the future or acknowledge your guilt. Assertiveness is fine, aggression is not.
So what is fidelity? Fidelity is a Met fan who wouldn't dream of cheering for the Yankees in the World Series even if they are playing the Boston Red Sox. Fidelity is picking a star and believing in that star enough to travel across the known world because of what that star means to you. The Magi showed fidelity to their religious prophesies. Our government shows fidelity to big finance--don't like that. It is the government for THE PEOPLE, not bankers. We all have our priorities in our lives and consistent with our image of who we are. The more solid our Inner Self, the more consistent we are. As you look through your life, what or who are your guiding stars?
My top one is God, and for me, I relate to that God as Jesus--much easier to relate to. I also chose to honor the feminine side of God by acknowledging the Hindu Kali, mother of mankind and its greatest defender. Somewhere along the way, Jesus lost His feminine side, so I have to inject it back in there.
Jesus' Great Commandment was "Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself." So I accept that as my top priority, and being who I am, and believing that "neighbor" means one who lives with me on this planet, I include a lot of living beings in that scope!
"The Earth is my birthplace and all humans my brothers" was my motto for when I became Worthy Advisor, with a theme of brotherhood, a flower being a stalk of winter wheat which is the metaphor for love in a Great Falls author's book, "Winter Wheat". We sang "Let There Be Peace on Earth and Let It Begin With Me" at the end of each meeting.
Where does my fidelity lie?
First God and, as an outreach of that, to the goal of a lasting world peace and respect for all mankind; and to Love--expressing that in all I do.
Next to myself: "to Thine Own Self Be True"--those things that give me wings in spite of my background that didn't include them: genetics, dancing especially ballet, songs/poetry; connecting with the ocean or the prairies (they give me a similar feeling and the mountains which give me the opposite feeling; Art, architecture,and interior designing: animals,spiritual learning and experience, Indian culture and cooking, writing, teaching. I love beauty--in movement, in art, in nature, in science, and I love mankind. I love to learn, grow, and share what I have discovered in order to give others the same joy of living that I have "down to the base pair level," and to help them avoid the suffering that I have brought upon myself.
Then my husband, so Nepal and Australia are my current top picks for places to go--that's where he is from and where his brother now lives. I appreciate his music and his interests even when I don't share them. I work to honor God through him and I am interested in his religion, so physics, and his culture, so Nepali cooking and life.
Below him are my parents: those things that connect me with them--church,genealogy, Scottish/Irish/Welsh heritage,horses, Montana,history,American Indian culture,winter wheat,hand sewing, flowers, baking; a connection to the common man, law
Then below them are my other fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, best friends--I have had several "chosen family" as I found that I had a great need for loving throughout my life, so cooking,flying,sailing, fishing,canoeing, hunting, Golden Retrievers, Huskies,quilting, sports.
So first wings, then roots, and I must also nourish my rhizomes--takes a lot of energy. So I find I best like those things which combine a few of the above--like watching stars: they dance so they nourish my wings; they remind me of Montana, hence nourish my roots, and they connect me with my husband, nourishing my main rhizome.
What guiding stars do you have? What about them nourishes your wings, roots, and rhizomes? There lies your fidelity. If you don't have God at the top, then you are--is football really "Number One"? Or is it power, also known as control,feeling superior to others, instead of love? This is the difference between being a "good" person and being a "moral" person. A moral person does things because of how it makes them feel. A "good" person does it because God--Someone outside of themselves, Someone who they acknowledge as superior, but not with human faults--demands it of them. The way is not always smooth or your choice, but it is the Blissful Path and by far the best lit.
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