Blog title borrowed from Elvis Presley. Lately, I have seen some interviews from the Actors Guild. Two actors that I admire and enjoy watching are Natalie Portman and Brad Pitt. For different reasons, they both inspire me with the individual passion for their work. Interesting to me is the fact that both of them come from families with a very mixed heritage. I first started thinking about this when Tiger Woods came on the golf scene. He did break nearly every golf record set by his personal golf heroes. Tiger is also of mixed origin. What fascinates me is how these unusual mixes seem to have produced people who can do extraordinary things.
This question of pure blood versus mixed blood is a big theme in the popular Harry Potter books. Yes, I read and enjoyed them all. So how does this exactly work? This mixing thing up and coming out with something new, and better? One answer might be we are all mixes and the illusion of purebred is, well, an illusion.
Spiritual teachers speak of purifying ourselves. Of burning out the karma, ego, and pain. To come to a place of purity. They also point out our impurity is exactly the motivation for our spiritual quest. Later this personal motive is replaced by a greater sense of the whole, the interconnectedness, and the joy of serving others. Until that blessed realization, we are impure.
To put it simply, we need to celebrate our impurity. To be excited by the mix of backgrounds, beliefs, and other influences. Diversity makes us stronger. One advantage of getting older, it gets easier to accept who we are. I guess this is also a function of knowing better who we are.
