Great People Drop Keys

When I was a kid, there were two things my mother would not tolerate. First, I was not allowed to say, "I can't ...". Her response would be, "can't never could". The second, she would not allow me to talk bad about other people - even when the person deserved it. She would stop me in mid sentence and say, "small people talk about other people, great people talk about concepts".

It concerns me how addicted the culture is to exposing the mistakes, pains, scars, and secrets of one another. The result is a continuing cycle of all of us being even more deeply wounded. I have known great people that, rather than expose would cover; freeing the people around them and restoring their dignity. I love, in the story of the prodigal son, how the father rushes out with a robe to cover (not expose) the sins of the prodigal son. The son walked back to the house with his dignity in tact. Jesus said, "I was naked, and you covered me, ... and as you do even to the least, you do to me".

One of my favorite Sufi poets is Hafiz, and he says it this way.

The small man 

Builds cages for everyone 

He

Knows.

While the sage,

Who has to duck his head

When the moon is low,

Keeps dropping keys all night long

For the

Beautiful

Rowdy

Prisoners.

One way that healing can come to our planet is for us to stop all the exposing and start covering one another instead. This is what great people do! Great people drop keys, freeing the people around them. The dignity that is preserved just might be our own.