Can’t Be “One,” Without Taking Care of “Number One”

I went to an event recently to support a friend of mine who promoted the event out of the goodness of her heart.  Interestingly enough the event was proported to bring awareness to “Oneness.”  The event was quite a disappointment, for many reasons, and ended up creating more separateness than oneness in that it was so badly put together that most of us were sorry we had gone and would rather not even think about being “one” with the protagonist.

Sadly, my friend, who invited me, and who also invited the majority of the people who were at the event, was dissappointed herself, as was I, and all of her friends that had gone based on her recommendation.  And I learned something important that night.  ironically, I did learn about “Oneness,” but not from the protagonist of the event, but indirectly, from my friend.

My friend is so much about “Oneness,” that she helps anyONE that calls her, finds her on Facebook, writes her, visits her, tweets her, texts her… you get the picture.  Why?  “Because,” she says, “we are all one.”  Now, I was down with that, sort of thing, and didn’t argue, until this past event.  That event blew the lid off this “Oneness” jig, as far as I am concerned.  What I got is that, we can’t be “One,” until we take care of “Number One.”

How does this apply to my friend.  My friend is so willing to help the “One,” that she put her reputation on the line by promoting an event that she was not too keen on, or didn’t know too much about, because she wanted to help the protagonist promote the message of “Oneness.”  In so doing, she may have turned some of her own friends, who were “one” with her, and separated them from her, and ultimately, the message.

On the other hand, my friend has so much to offer the world.  In fact, one could say that the world is thirsty for her wisdom.  But she does not have time to promote herself, write her books, put her wisdom out there, because she is too busy “helping the ‘One.'”

As I am starting to see it, if we came down onto this planet to experience separateness, duality, ourselves, then so be it, let’s do it, let’s experience it. By my friend helping the “One,” to the detriment of “Number one,” then she is not truly helping the “One.”  Because, since she is a part of the “One,” how could something be good for the “One,” if it isn’t good for her?

Instead, what is best for her, is best for the “One.”  And only when we are truly serving ourselves can we truly be serving the “One.”  And only then could we become truly “One,” when we embrace the “one” that matters most, “Number One.”

I recognize that this sounds a bit selfish, but selfish is a misleading term, and something we can address at a later time.  Suffice it to say, I’m talking about doing for oneself what truly benefits oneself.  Selfishness, in the way that we usually mean it, doesn’t serve anyone, in the long run, not even the person who is being selfish.  Most selfish acts are done out of ignorance of what one truly wants or needs.

Wait, this is getting more complicated than I thought.  And as I write this I’m thinking, what does any of this matter anyway?  If one drop of rain thinks that it is different than another drop of rain, and doesn’t care about the “Oneness,” so what?  In the end, it’s still going to end up in a puddle with all the other rain drops.  It will end up in a puddle as “one,” with the rain drops that were selfish and didn’t care about the other drops, and in the same puddle, and “one” with the rain drops who did everything they could for the “Oneness.”

So what the hell did I learn?