Theos-Talk Archives (September 1997 Message tl00226)

At 01:22 PM 9/10/97 -0400, Titus wrote:

<friendly snip>
>
>Diana, on the other hand ... Let me don my "bullet proof and flame proof
vest"
>.. She was a good woman, but no saint. It is right that she be honored, but
>the public response seemed quite out of proportion to me.

Titus,

Usually I agree with you, but have to differ here. Well, not exactly
differ, but ask you if you can prove that Diana was not a saint? Of course,
this brings up the question of what *is* a "saint" which came to my mind
when her brother said in his eulogy that she wasn't a saint, that she
laughed until doubled over, etc. Could it be that you share with him a sort
of plaster-of-Paris concept of sainthood? I'm not trying to canonize Diana,
but IMHO she could have very well been a highly-evolved soul. I'm not
speaking of Master (Mistress?) level necessarily, but a disciple quite a
ways on the Path? It's hard to know without knowing far more details of her
inner life.

> Writing a check,
>meeting with dignitaries, or attending a banquet for a few hours, while
>spending many other hours in resorts, luxury hotels and BMW's is different
>from getting your fingers dirty and giving your *whole* life to a cause.

Now this is where I do have to differ. ;-D Diana was born to wealth and
into the British aristocracy. Even saints need to relax, recreate, etc. So,
it's not surprising that she did it within the milleau she was born to. Not
speaking of Diana in particular, but an evolved soul could purposely retain
the trappings of that milleau so as to remain connected with the powerful
in order to do their work. (You tend to become ostracized from the
aristocracy when you don't travel in their circles, I think.) As
spiritually "noble" as it is to get ones fingers dirty, humanitarian causes
require money and lots of it. Serving humanity requires meeting with
dignitaries, writing checks, and attending fundraisers just as much as it
requires pulling maggots out of wounds. Service, IMHO, is where you find it
and where you can do your personal best to meet the need in the
circumstances in which you find yourself. I don't think that we should get
into diminishing one type of service in favor of another. It's all
desperately needed.
>
>I am glad that so many people prayed at once during her service and welcome
>reminders of charitable acts (not only the writing of a check), but where is
>such devotion to God?  What about other people who gave their *lives* to
>a good cause?

There are truly many unsung heroes. One small trend that I've noticed in
the media in the past few years is features highlighting "average" people
performing astounding acts of service in one way or another. ABC has their
person of the week (I think that's what it's called), my local newspaper
has plenty of such features, etc. I don't think that we can diminish
Diana's acts of service to checkwriting (as important as that is in
itself). In the many filmclips they've shown of her after her death, I
noticed that she almost invariably spontaneously touched or held the
unfortunate people she visited. This spoke to me of a spontaneous, deep
compassion that was not at all studied or put on for the camera. She also
risked her personal safety in going to areas containing land mines. (You've
probably seen the clips of her wearing protective clothing, face shield,
etc.) As a mother, she devoted herself to rearing her sons, nurturing the
quality of compassion within them, well aware that William may one day sit
on the throne and be in a powerful position to serve humanity.

Where is such devotion to God? If God is every individual that we meet, the
devotion to serving them is indeed devotion to God.

Lynn