COMMITMENT...

Commitment gathers the many wandering fragments of the energy that is our soul, concentrates the gathered energy, then focuses the beam on goals we set ourselves. It is part of the nature of human energy, after the exertion of such effective concentration, to relapse into the original, ineffectual state of dispersal. Where this happens, the normal state of a person's life is the dispirited inertia of dispersal, punctured at intervals by bursts of committed action, spectacular revelations of the immense possibilities of committed work, but so brief that they confirm the dispiriting notion that the natural state of humanity is impotent torpor; they feed the crippling illusion that the intelligent life of commitment can only be a momentary revelation of transcendent beauty, a singular eruption of unworldly energy bursting briefly out of eternal lethargy. If we wanted to reverse this unbalanced distribution of commitment and apathy, we would have to find ways of increasing the frequency with which committed consciousness wove its way into the drowsy fabric of daily existence. We would have to make the focused presence of committed through a regular, routine part of the passage of our life. We would have to find ways of making a frame for our daily lives from the active expression of our commitment.