! ! In Praise Of Ego

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