Of the utmost

What is importance? What is grand importance? Were the Pharaohs important? To several thousands they meant only death. To many millions since, they meant the discovery of a prophet, the fulfillment of God's love and proof of his existence.  And when Moses delivered his people from them to the land of milk and honey, the people cherished the land, so much so that today they shed blood and kill their brothers for it.  But my question is what is importance, not what do we make of importance.

Is importance the number of lives you touch?  There are grains of sand that will see more lovers wed, inspire more poetry, create more joy for the soulfully weathered, train for superstar athletes, than will I.  Is importance the name you've made for yourself in history? I suspect Dora the Explorer and the current hit song Call Me Maybe will mean more to my two year old cousin, and millions more, than will I.  Is importance doing God's work?  Can someone specify if turning the other cheek or if bringing the heathens closer to the hellfire they have lit with their drystones of sin is more important today? Is importance acting out all of your potential to the best of your abilities, better than anyone else? Is importance really so competitive? Is it ambitious? Can it be gentle, like the perfect sunrise or a friend's smile or a summer night lacking in humidity?  Can it be simple and unwilled, like a mother's love or an artist's brush stroke or a beautiful mind?  Can importance just be, without becoming, like the rules of nature or the lover's heart?

I suppose a person reaches a point where he tires of questioning what is important and rather questions what is importance.  It's interesting how you can know the former without knowing the latter.  For me I feel as though importance is easier felt than seen, and perhaps importantly so.  Perhaps asking what is importance is like asking what is the wind, any short answers would be short-sighted, and likely more snarky than valuable.

We try so hard to see importance, to identify it, put it in a bottle and point to it sayong 'This thing here is what is important to me.' But once it is in that bottle we can't feel it.  It looks contrived, it begins to loom stale, old fashioned values open to argument.  Importance needs to be felt, which means necessarily that it must move, or be moved towards.  Importance flows, it crashes and it burns, then rises, then condenses and falls.  Importance is a living concept.

When you hear importance you can be misled. When you see importance it can look unimportant. When you taste and smell importance the debate opens as to whether you like it or not. But when you just feel it, you know it.

Maybe importance is just a feeling, and feeling is of the utmost importance, close loop.  This dance has come to an end, albeit not necessarily to a conclusion, for no other reason than I feel I should sleep.