Gravity and the Pedestal
Putting people on a pedestal, no matter how high the pedestal, has only one ending.
We can admire someone. We can be inspired by them. They can mentor us.
But to place them above us diminishes everyone, the person placed on the pedestal and those looking up and bowing down.
This is in distinction to reverence. To revere. A deep and abiding respect for.
One of the intentions I set for a future intimate partnership before I met Tony, was to revere my partner more each year. To increase my respect for him. That intention is unfolding.
To bow at the feet of someone does not mean you have them on a pedestal. I can and do bow in respect every day to Mother Nature and her glory. I can bow in respect to the journalists, aid workers and doctors in Gaza. This is to honour them.
But to place another human on a pedestal, to diminish self and others in their shadow, is to practice supremacy. And goodness knows the world doesn’t need a single extra act of any kind of supremacy, given we are blood-soaked in it.
To allow another person to put you on a pedestal only indicates hollow bones and an unrequited need for love and approval.
The ground of being says every single life has worth and value. The delight of diversity says every single life is unique in expression.
Sometimes my skills are perfect for a moment in time. Other times, yours. The gorgeous interchange and interdependence are stunning to behold.
Humility seeds greatness, not hubris.
Pedestals, like all life, including our egoic life, are under the omni-force of gravity.
Gravity will win. Only the time it takes to fall is uncertain.
Even systems placed on a pedestal – like capitalism – are under the effect of gravity.
I look around and see so many pedestals populated by so many hollow bones, missing any capacity for humility and all-life reverence. So many vampiric systems searching for the next feed in a world sucked dry.
I feel the field of gravity. A force no one can argue with.
I hear the future crash of pedestals and the parasites atop them.
Photo March 31st, Article written March 31st 2025
