Most Americans and music lovers worldwide acknowledge Elvis Presley as “The King” of rock and roll. But some people have no idea who Elvis Presley is or what it means to be “The King” to millions of loyal fans.
Today I was reading Lesson 3 of A Course in Miracles: I do not understand anything I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place].
Just then I thought about Cindy. The foreign exchange student from China that I hung out with for a few weeks.
I was taking a class on multi-cultural competency as part of the process towards my master’s degree in counseling. Our instructor, Vince Noble asked for volunteers to escort foreign exchange students and ease their transition into the USA. He may have even offered extra credit, I can’t remember. But I volunteered and was paired up with Cindy from China.
One day, Cindy and I went to the CSULB art show. There were many paintings and several rooms filled with original art pieces created by students. We came upon a portrait of Elvis Presley. I admired the creativity of the piece. Cindy pointed at it and asked, “who is that?”
I was stunned. It was as if my life was flashing before me. I could not imagine how to describe who Elvis was. He is so many things to so many people and I couldn’t imagine what the world, or at least my world, would be like without him.
I managed to mumble out some answer about how Elvis was a rock legend and I hummed a few bars of Blue Suede Shoes and Jailhouse Rock to see if it would ring a bell.
Nothing.
I was speechless.
I had been slapped aside the head once again and reminded that just because I have an experience or a social construct built up around a certain object or person, doesn’t mean everyone else does.
I know that part of the lesson with A Course in Miracles is to realize that I can choose to live in the now, free from attachments to the past, anytime I want to. This is the only place I can experience true freedom and creativity.
So, Cindy gave me a gift that day, the gift of realizing, “I have given everything I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place (on this blog)] all the meaning that it has for me.” Yes, even Elvis Presley.
Tags: A Course in Miracles, elvis presley, rock and roll music
