The man tells his son,
“Take a business course
It will teach you how the world runs.”
No, I want to tell the boy. Don’t learn that.
Do you want to know how the world runs?
Take a step outside to see the wind move the trees
Kneel down in your front yard in the early morning sun to smell the earth, let it fill you
Pay attention to the birds circling over your head and how they call to you
This is how the world runs
You want to know how the world runs?
Put your hand on your heart just to feel it beat
Quiet your mind until the only voice left is your own,
The sliver of a whisper you’ve never bothered to listen to before
Give kindness with no thought of what you’ll get in return
Spread love for the joy of it
Dance in the daytime because you can
Say what’s in your heart
Sit with someone who is not long for the world, and pay attention to what it is they care about
See if they name, among their regrets, that they never took a business course that showed them
Exactly how it was the world worked.
That is not how the world works.
It is how we work it.
Our vision, myopic and askew
Can’t see what we have done
If you want to know how the world works, son,
Step away from it
Reinvent it
See what remains true
Sink your toes into the spot where ocean meets sand
Watch how the tides drift away then back
Lift up your voice in laughter, to think you ever believed
A course
Or a textbook
Or a professor
Could teach you how the world works.
It is you
And only you.
And always you.
It is all in you.
