Obedience

Most people I know don’t care much for being “obedient” as they think it is succumbing to the will of another person or group.  It is seen as something children and holy people ought to do.  But if you look at the Latin root meaning of “obedience” you will see “obaudire” which means “to give an ear to or to at attend to.”  It is a horizontal rather than a top down relationship.  Judith Valente points this out.  The point of “obaudire” is to move us off of our obsession with the “self.”  When I try to listen to someone, and do so successfully, I am not thinking about me.  Given my penchant for making myself the center of my universe, this “not-self” thinking is a good thing.  Reading this blog, were you focused on it and not thinking about you?  That would be obedience.  Obey!  Read blog.