Touching Souls

When I was young – younger – I worked on a production for Arthur Giron’s play titled Becoming Memories. It’s a story of lessons learned and how they are passed from generation to generation. At that age, my mind was expanding at an incredible rate and I often thought of the meaning of life, death and all that stuff in-between. During one particular rehersal, seeped in the ambiance of the production, I had constructed a mantra which has stayed with me ever since. The saying I have repeated in my head thousands of times over the years is, “My soul will live until the end of the souls which I have touched.”

I like this little prayer of mine. I like to take the “souls which I have touched” part and consider how that may pan out. Each person I encounter – each soul – is touched by me. I, who am very imperfect, touch dozens of people each day. How long the reactions to my decisions last coincides with the intent I put behind the task. The amount of energy I put into loving, hating, envying, paying, ignoring, idolizing, humiliating, emulating, teaching, helping, kissing, fucking, screwing, loving – oooh, I already mentioned loving, didn’t I? – caring for someone, is going to dictate how long those impressions will last. To the end of their soul, I suppose..

How long does you soul last? Double back, and you see the mantra reads ‘until the end of the souls which you have touched.” So this means, if I touch a soul, that will influence how they deal with other souls, who will in turn touch other souls. Taking a wild guess, and I’m probably wrong, the average person interacts at some level with a dozen or two people each day. That’s a lot of soul-touching and those impressions are going to last for a very long time.

I think it’s a great amount of responsibilty we have to realize we have an impact on this world – this world of souls – that will last for eternity. When I consider some of the bad behaviour I’ve seen in this world, I think many of us forego this responsibility we have. We may be able to recite a golden rule, but do we live it? In some cases, yes. In other cases no.

There are people all around the globe who recognize this reponsibilty. They are people who practice kindness. They are people who practice honesty and sincerity and equality. They are people from all walks of life – soldiers, monks, merchants, carpenters, musicians, students. And, yes, they are as imperfect as all of us. In fact they are exactly the same. They are people who have accepted the idea that they have a very long-lasting influence on their neighbor, world, universe.

I do not think there is a limit to how many people can play in this game. In fact, I think there is room for every single person. Not only that, I think it would be ok to include dogs, and cats, and rats and pigs and bunny rabitts and… and donkeys, even if they do have to show up in court to defend a braying issue with the irrate neighbor. There is plenty of room for us all. Yet we have to remember we have a responsibility to touch each soul in a way with which we can be content… even if it might last for eternity.