Ethical Wills
To be alive is to have learned valuable things about life.
Ethical wills are an ancient tradition that allows you to pass this wisdom on to others. Through prompts I can help you realize what you know about living, write or edit it for you, and provide you handsome archival copies on acid-free paper.
Leave a tangible legacy. You can.
Every Ethical Will Is Unique.
An example:
As I did almost daily for a dozen years, in the late 1980s I was walking around Radnor Lake when my hiking companion Donna Tauscher spoke the phrase "God is within you as you." This was a watershed spiritual moment. Reared in the South as a Christian, I had always understood God to be a force outside myself--a loving if reckoning countenance, an entity to implore or beg depending on the severity of the situation, and a superpower to whom I was glad to give thanks for the beauty of the universe. John Kennedy famously said, "Here on earth God's work must truly be our own." That day Kennedy's quote began to make real sense to me. Surely we are the "senses" of God experiencing the attributes of a literally divine scheme. Except through us, how else can God caress the face of friend, shed tears over a tragedy, or taste the exhilaration of self-determination and freedom? OUR CONCEPTIONS OF THE DIVINE CAN CHANGE AND STILL BE REVERENT AND TRUE.
There is always more of God and that expression changes and stays the same. Increasingly for me these expressions are nature and beauty. It is nature that gives us our language of beauty. Nature has forever been our school, our vocabulary, our Rosetta stone. The metaphors of water, air, earth, and fire cascade through all the world's sacred texts for good reason. NATURE IS THE SACRED MADE TANGIBLE FOR US, SO GO TO "CHURCH."
Attending the Parliaments of the World's Religions in Chicago, South Africa, and Barcelona have been key in my understanding of the pathways for how we can co-exist spiritually on this fragile planet . Faiths have more in common that we routinely champion and celebrate. LOOK FOR WAYS TO CONNECT GLOBALLY.
Travel is a religious practice for me. It teaches me that differences among us are exquisite and worthy of marvel. Even more, it teaches me that we are much, much more alike than we are different: We all want better lives, whatever we understand that to be. We want the personal liberty that dwells in each of our souls to manifest. We want health, happiness, and laughter, especially for our children. We want nourishing food, sound shelter, and clean water. We want to die before our children do, and only after we have seen them begin to make their own self-defined, safe, challenging, and satisfying headway in the world. WE ARE ALL THE SAME AT HEART.
I have overcome things in life I never thought I could. Being openly gay is only perhaps the most obvious of these. The years I wasted worrying and disavowing I can never have back. But I can give back by simply being who I am in fullness. WE CAN FACE OUR WORST FEARS, TRANSCEND THEM, AND EVEN THEN ENJOY THEM.
I am sixty. My mother has been dead for four months, my father for eight years. Their worlds became smaller as they aged. I do not think this served them well. As I age I want my world to enlarge. This most certainly includes the family I have made out of necessity, affinity, and joy. I am so grateful to you for your love, support, and lessons in love. OPEN MORE, NOT LESS, TO THE WORLD AS WE AGE.
As my friend Matt Smith wisely says, "IF YOU'RE NOT HAVING FUN, YOU'RE NOT DOING IT RIGHT." I'm not as adept at this as I hope to be, but I believe this is the way to go. And as my Key West cab driver Loretta said, "I'M NOT HERE FOR A LONG TIME. I'M HERE FOR A GOOD TIME." BY ALL MEANS HAVE FUN AND LAUGH.
By circumstance and choice I have been a "student of death" for the last decade. My examinations lead me to believe honestly that death is a marvelous portal to the next travel adventure. I hope to hold this view when it will be my turn to step on the conveyor belt. DEATH IS A GOOD AND DESIRABLE THING, A SUBLIME PART OF THE PLAN. IT IS NOT SOMETHING TO BE FEARED OR BLOCKED.
I have learned as much or more from animals as I have any person. I uphold them as brighter spirits who quest for survival but bypass organized war. They have improved my life everyday since the day I was born, and I hope never to live without them. Indeed, they teach us what no human can. WILD AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS AND THE PLANET THAT SUPPORTS US ARE ESSENTIAL TO HUMANS. GIVE THEM THEIR DUE.
I have come to understand, and on good days, embrace the reality, that Story is truly the All of being, believing, negotiating, and undergoing. This understanding has led me to embrace theatre, my first key in the lock of the human condition and the way out of prison. WHEN YOU COME DOWN TO IT, STORY IS ALL.
Considering God is within me as me, I have not kept swept my temple as clean nor fostered its reverence as it is due. I hope and believe, however, that my temple doors have increasingly swung open more often and more widely to let in the sunshine of the sublime world in all its manifestations. May it always be so. I am grateful. OPEN WIDE AND TRUST IN THE POWERS AND LAWS OF NATURE.
The woods we travel are unique for each of us. I leave these words as one light on the path, but there are many signposts we can leave for each other. This written legacy is one I leave for you. May it speed your unique travels. THERE'S MORE THAN ONE WAY TO DO THIS THING CALLED LIVING, SO PLEASE DON'T HARASS, DISCOUNT, OR BERATE THOSE WHO ARE DIFFERENT. THE SAME APPLIES TO SELF WHEN PERPLEXED ABOUT HOW TO PROCEED.
A HUMAN INCARNATION IS AN EXQUISITE GIFT. I'M SO GRATEFUL FOR THE SHOT AT IT, ESPECIALLY AFTER ALL THOSE YEARS I SPENT AS A ROCK. THIS IS PROBABLY WHY I LOVE THEM SO.
This likely isn't all I know, but it's a beginning. Will I ever find the end? Good Luck and God Bless.
F. LYNNE BACHLEDA
1,007 words
Revised July 31, 2012
To be alive is to have learned valuable things about life.
Ethical wills are an ancient tradition that allows you to pass this wisdom on to others. Through prompts I can help you realize what you know about living, write or edit it for you, and provide you handsome archival copies on acid-free paper.
Leave a tangible legacy. You can.
Every Ethical Will Is Unique.
An example:
As I did almost daily for a dozen years, in the late 1980s I was walking around Radnor Lake when my hiking companion Donna Tauscher spoke the phrase "God is within you as you." This was a watershed spiritual moment. Reared in the South as a Christian, I had always understood God to be a force outside myself--a loving if reckoning countenance, an entity to implore or beg depending on the severity of the situation, and a superpower to whom I was glad to give thanks for the beauty of the universe. John Kennedy famously said, "Here on earth God's work must truly be our own." That day Kennedy's quote began to make real sense to me. Surely we are the "senses" of God experiencing the attributes of a literally divine scheme. Except through us, how else can God caress the face of friend, shed tears over a tragedy, or taste the exhilaration of self-determination and freedom? OUR CONCEPTIONS OF THE DIVINE CAN CHANGE AND STILL BE REVERENT AND TRUE.
There is always more of God and that expression changes and stays the same. Increasingly for me these expressions are nature and beauty. It is nature that gives us our language of beauty. Nature has forever been our school, our vocabulary, our Rosetta stone. The metaphors of water, air, earth, and fire cascade through all the world's sacred texts for good reason. NATURE IS THE SACRED MADE TANGIBLE FOR US, SO GO TO "CHURCH."
Attending the Parliaments of the World's Religions in Chicago, South Africa, and Barcelona have been key in my understanding of the pathways for how we can co-exist spiritually on this fragile planet . Faiths have more in common that we routinely champion and celebrate. LOOK FOR WAYS TO CONNECT GLOBALLY.
Travel is a religious practice for me. It teaches me that differences among us are exquisite and worthy of marvel. Even more, it teaches me that we are much, much more alike than we are different: We all want better lives, whatever we understand that to be. We want the personal liberty that dwells in each of our souls to manifest. We want health, happiness, and laughter, especially for our children. We want nourishing food, sound shelter, and clean water. We want to die before our children do, and only after we have seen them begin to make their own self-defined, safe, challenging, and satisfying headway in the world. WE ARE ALL THE SAME AT HEART.
I have overcome things in life I never thought I could. Being openly gay is only perhaps the most obvious of these. The years I wasted worrying and disavowing I can never have back. But I can give back by simply being who I am in fullness. WE CAN FACE OUR WORST FEARS, TRANSCEND THEM, AND EVEN THEN ENJOY THEM.
I am sixty. My mother has been dead for four months, my father for eight years. Their worlds became smaller as they aged. I do not think this served them well. As I age I want my world to enlarge. This most certainly includes the family I have made out of necessity, affinity, and joy. I am so grateful to you for your love, support, and lessons in love. OPEN MORE, NOT LESS, TO THE WORLD AS WE AGE.
As my friend Matt Smith wisely says, "IF YOU'RE NOT HAVING FUN, YOU'RE NOT DOING IT RIGHT." I'm not as adept at this as I hope to be, but I believe this is the way to go. And as my Key West cab driver Loretta said, "I'M NOT HERE FOR A LONG TIME. I'M HERE FOR A GOOD TIME." BY ALL MEANS HAVE FUN AND LAUGH.
By circumstance and choice I have been a "student of death" for the last decade. My examinations lead me to believe honestly that death is a marvelous portal to the next travel adventure. I hope to hold this view when it will be my turn to step on the conveyor belt. DEATH IS A GOOD AND DESIRABLE THING, A SUBLIME PART OF THE PLAN. IT IS NOT SOMETHING TO BE FEARED OR BLOCKED.
I have learned as much or more from animals as I have any person. I uphold them as brighter spirits who quest for survival but bypass organized war. They have improved my life everyday since the day I was born, and I hope never to live without them. Indeed, they teach us what no human can. WILD AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS AND THE PLANET THAT SUPPORTS US ARE ESSENTIAL TO HUMANS. GIVE THEM THEIR DUE.
I have come to understand, and on good days, embrace the reality, that Story is truly the All of being, believing, negotiating, and undergoing. This understanding has led me to embrace theatre, my first key in the lock of the human condition and the way out of prison. WHEN YOU COME DOWN TO IT, STORY IS ALL.
Considering God is within me as me, I have not kept swept my temple as clean nor fostered its reverence as it is due. I hope and believe, however, that my temple doors have increasingly swung open more often and more widely to let in the sunshine of the sublime world in all its manifestations. May it always be so. I am grateful. OPEN WIDE AND TRUST IN THE POWERS AND LAWS OF NATURE.
The woods we travel are unique for each of us. I leave these words as one light on the path, but there are many signposts we can leave for each other. This written legacy is one I leave for you. May it speed your unique travels. THERE'S MORE THAN ONE WAY TO DO THIS THING CALLED LIVING, SO PLEASE DON'T HARASS, DISCOUNT, OR BERATE THOSE WHO ARE DIFFERENT. THE SAME APPLIES TO SELF WHEN PERPLEXED ABOUT HOW TO PROCEED.
A HUMAN INCARNATION IS AN EXQUISITE GIFT. I'M SO GRATEFUL FOR THE SHOT AT IT, ESPECIALLY AFTER ALL THOSE YEARS I SPENT AS A ROCK. THIS IS PROBABLY WHY I LOVE THEM SO.
This likely isn't all I know, but it's a beginning. Will I ever find the end? Good Luck and God Bless.
F. LYNNE BACHLEDA
1,007 words
Revised July 31, 2012