Three Verbs To Conjugate
During this past week I traveled with a colleague high up into the Altiplano to the city of Oruro. The city sits at about 14,000 feet and is a centre for mining. It has enjoyed this reputation ever since the Spanish explorers came in the 16th century in their search for gold and silver. They found plenty of it in Potosi and Oruro.
My purpose for the trip wasn’t to go traveling (although I did visit and explore an ancient mine), but to teach a 3-day course on the Book of Ephesians to a group of students and pastors at the Baptist Seminary in Oruro. This was my first course to teach in Spanish so I was a bit apprehensive. However, all went well and the students seemed to understand my Castellano which is the name they use instead of Spanish (they like to distance themselves from the Spanish conquistadores).
What struck me by this group of students was their keenness and attentiveness. They came for 5 hours a day (3 days for a total of 15 hours) of instruction on an ancient text of St. Paul. They were happy to be there and were ready to learn!
Their focus reminded me of a line from Evelyn Underhill who says there are three verbs to conjugate in this life: (1) ‘to have’, (2) ‘to do’, and (3) ‘to be’. She argues that we spend a lot of time conjugating the first two verbs and forget the most important verb–’to be’! It seemed to me as I interacted with these students that they understood this truth. There are not a lot of opportunities for ‘doing’ in Oruro and certainly not much ‘having’ in the Altiplano–but they had hooked into the importance of being!
I was humbled by their approach to life. It reminded me how much time we in the north place on having and doing and rather less on being. We spend a lot of time consuming and pursuing our career objectives and forget the fundamental importance of ‘What kind of individual am I becoming’?
So a big thank you to my students in Oruro! A good reminder from a city 3 miles high–a bit of heaven shining through the human overcast of wanting and achieving. Being is the most important verb to conjugate. We want to become what we are fully capable of becoming–mature, authentic, integrated beings who understand that having and doing can’t replace the quality of our being!
As this is a question that apparently has been asked of us before, I still do not know how to answer it. I know for myself I acknowledge what is around me, as in the colour purple, but do I be in the moment. No. Not really. Do I try, sometimes. Am I willing to try harder? Yes.
As for who I am becoming, that is always important to me. Forget how I come across. Forget what is being said of me, I hope, hope that what I am becoming is something I can live with. I hope that what I become can hopefully make one other person take a second look at something and reconsider an alternative answer.