Soup, Art, and Bricklaying

"The Way of Soup"... is the way of Art, Music, Bricklaying, Teaching, Street Sweeping, Nursing, Poetry, Carpentry, Acting, Silk-Screening... and on and on... when done in a spirit of "surrender, service, and solidarity"...

Every human yearns for a deep sense of meaning and purpose: perhaps most often we "buy" the meaning and purpose told to us by our families... but for some of us, we entered this world with, seemingly, question marks embedded in our brains: "why why why and why not and what if?" And so we take off in search for our way...

My search led to Soup: a Kitchen serving the hungry, homeless, and marginalized of Salinas... it took years and years for my consciousness to evolve to the point of understanding that the initial impulse "to do good", while a starter, was really beside the point. It took years of cooking, serving, and loving and losing, for me to enter the second phase of "service": which is surrender: the "I" that kept showing up was called -- not just to cook -- but to be cooked! Oh, to be sure, I didn't jump into the soup pot, but I was nevertheless "cooked"! There, right there, in the simmering soup, rolling with the undulating vegetables, were pieces of my ego, along with my heart and soul... like the mysterious meld of long-simmered vegetables, the person "being cooked" loses that primal sense of separation and slowly, steadily, enters the sublime state of "no separation": "I am You, You are Me, and We are All Together" in the Mystic Soup of Only One... Then server and served are each and both: no difference... then, server and served, are about the way of mutual liberation...

Service and surrender must necessarily lead to "solidarity": if "I am You, You are Me, and We are All Together" then: here come the questions again: only this time, on real Overload! Feeding the hungry requires knowing why people are without food. Sheltering people requires knowing why people are without homes. Listening to people requires knowing why people break in life. Empathy and compassion are meant to trigger solidarity: why do the systems of Power not serve and liberate instead of obfuscate and oppress? Why do the systems of Power not place all Power at the service of people and this precious blue Planet instead of the worship Greed and Domination? Why do the systems of Power control every aspect of economics, politics, and religion: so that a few people are able to concentrate Wealth and the Wrongful Exercise of Power into a very few hands? These questions, along with a multitude of others, are like the salt, pepper, and herbs that render the soup finally delicious: and the cook has been "cooked" and is now the embodiment of solidarity...

"The Way of Soup" is the Way of Music, Art, Bricklaying, and every other means of living "service, surrender, and solidarity": everyone is worthy of leading the rEvolution! The transformation that we are all needing -- and worthy of: for ourselves, each other, and this precious blue Planet -- also needs us! We've got to be willing to put our toes to the line and enter the "race" of becoming love without limits: the world can't wait for someone else or for another time: our time is now: our Place is wherever we are willing to stand: in Solidarity: we require Justice, Peace, Equality, Harmony, Kindness, Beauty, Opportunity, Reverence, and Liberation for All: now! 

So, are you standing? Are you forming or joining community? Are you leading by circles? Are you walking lightly upon the Planet? Are you becoming the Love you were all along? Sing it out! Raise your voice for all that is good, true, noble, and beautiful in humanity! Surely it is now obvious that we can't wait until tomorrow... 

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