In carefree, laughing, joyful mood – <br />let’s praise the ego, to its face! <br /> <br />Our most faithful mate throughout our life; <br />with us longer than our parents or our children are; <br /> <br />at our heels at all times, proud of head and tail, <br />saying to the world that ‘I belong to him! ’; <br /> <br />faithful as a dog; and cunning as a cat; <br />between them, running our un-mastered lives; <br /> <br />(and like the cosy purring cat you stroke upon your lap, <br />ego's the secret dark night-hunter, out to kill all life..) <br /> <br />ego, more awake than we ourselves, <br />never missing a living moment; <br /> <br />every heart-beat an opportunity; <br />sharper entrepreneur than any city slicker: <br /> <br />‘what’s in it for me? ’; there is no trick, <br />no turn, no market swing, that ego can’t exploit and profit from; <br /> <br />so let’s praise ego to its face; see the Creator’s own full force, <br />brilliant and magnificent, manifested, used, in ego’s skills… <br /> <br />but know, and know we know, its lifetime’s bitter secret: <br />for all its skills, its energies are stolen fuel…: <br /> <br />moment by moment sapping secretly, <br />the consciousness, the wisdom, happiness, <br /> <br />that seem just out of our elusive reach.. <br />So – as we watch a child, so innocent, <br /> <br />playing its merry games of fantasy, <br />running round itself in playground and in park, <br /> <br />we laughing in parental love, sing out those magic words: <br />‘I’m watching you…! ’<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-praise-of-ego/
