The quote comes from "The Little Prince", which is one of my favorite books, in the original French, which I used to be able to read. The line, I had to look it up, in French is "On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yieux." It is the moral of the story of the boy who comes to earth from a little planet. On this planet, he resides alone, with only the company of a rose, and three volcanoes, one which is dormant. On his trek he meets a variety of life's mentors. He comes to understand that his search for meaning comes down to this: All this stuff around us that seems important, really is not. We devote our lives to possessions, or ideology, or to ourselves. If we are lucky we come to know that what is important is not what appeals to our eyes, to our bodies, our sensuality, or to our egos, but the intangibles. It is that which cultivates our essence, our transcendental souls. For the Catholic me, it is what appeals to the Will of God, although my own search for understanding of that particular tenet, continues in struggle and will so continue for the rest of my life.
Where is this coming from? Today was the West Hollywood Gay Pride Parade, a tradition since at least the mid 80s if not earlier, in which the community pours onto Santa Monica Boulevard and its environs to revel in its sexuality. I may be channelling my late father when I say that I am not quite sure why anyone's sexuality, gay or heterosexual, requires a prideful pronouncement of any kind.. It is arguable that the sexual act in its various permutations identifies us most with the beasts of the earth, and is better a matter of shrouded secrecy than a banner. But I am a child of my generation and tolerant of my society's modes of expression. Thus, I usually object primarily to the fact that the parade snarls the traffic, cuts off access to various boulevards and streets, and is always held on a Sunday, making it nearly impossible to get to church for the 12:15. Still, over the years, the sheriff's department, has gotten it together, and with a bright sign provided to us for the occasion, the parishsioners can get through the barriers to worship. Not that a lot of people brave the crowds and traffic, because you have to start out about an hour earlier than you would otherwise. I usually have made it, knowing the backdoor route well.
I was a little sad though today that the crowd was so sparse, because there was a nun, a quite elderly nun, the only non-Chinese member of a community of nuns, who came from China to raise money for the work of their mission. Her name had been Gloria Watts. For the last 50 years, it has been Sister Mary Paul. She had been a Methodist in her childhood. And after converting to Catholicism, in the late 1950's, she began her soujourn as nun and nurse and model of God's Love in China. With photographs of the before and after of the miracle, she told of a one year old who had come to the mission dying, and after a death bed baptism, recovered with little medicine and great care, to go home with her astonished parents. Yes, it was schmaltzy. It made me squirm a little for my comfortable life, knowing that this woman has been around Communism, pestilence and poverty her whole adult life and managed to praise God with her work and words.
On the way back down the street after Church, getting back to the area of the barriers, merriment. rhythmic whistles and the music, I noticed a Channel 2 video van, putting together the story that will probably run on the 11 o'clock news about the festivities at the parade.
I thought that what needs to be on the news tonight, as well, maybe, I say with a certain amount of political incorrectness, instead, is the story of this nun. She has given her life to a part of the world we barely think about here in sunny, abundant Los Angeles, satiated with our rights and food and fairs. But it won't be. It isn't "if it bleeds, it leads". It isn't a feel good thing for reporter patter.
But that's what it means I guess about being in the world, and not of it. Such as she are invisible. The truly important is invisible to the eye.
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