The above picture is from the Confucius Temple next to where I lived and taught English from 2011-13 in Qufu, China. The stele of the tortoise representing the importance that Confucius embodied in Chinese history for now more the twenty-five hundred years.
A lot of what I write about is about the concept or idea of dualism. We live two lives, one in the present, the second for eternity’s sake. This is emblematic of the tortoise, of how we live in order to in effect leave ourselves behind. We are always leaving behind vestiges of who we have been in the present. Moving to a new home, getting a new job that requires us to redefine ourselves with new skills, re-adjusting to new family members who come and go into our lives. Then retiring to a life that says who we have been and perhaps given an opportunity to define or finetune ourselves for history’s sake before moving on.
What I really wanted to use here was an editorial drawing that appeared in the Springfield newspaper by Bob Palmer depicting me as the turtle crossing the finish line first winning my election as a state representative in November 1978. I have the original somewhere in my stuff but couldn’t find for this entry. Serving one term, then losing the next election in 1980, only proved that serving my ego was to be short-lived. It seems I’ve always had this connection with the tortoise.
Ultimately discovering that it’s not what you do as much as who you are that matters. It’s about connecting the dots both past and present that foretell the future. About where you are and what you are doing only a pathway to tell the story that leads to foregone conclusions once you can see beyond the present to the unknowable future. For myself, it was later leaving the job in Fall River just a stone’s throw from where my grandparents settled more than a hundred years after emigrating from Italy. Only to find you are soon uprooted as this place was only to be temporary. Just as our lives are meant to be this way as well as we are to be found in constant renewal. That who we thought we were, is not representative of who we are yet to become.
We bring with us certain innate attributes – some to develop and others to discard that we no longer need or that are here to define us. I’ve often written about collecting tortoise shells and picking up turtles along the roadside to try to keep them safe growing up on the farm in Lamar. Only later learning that they can become disoriented because they can lose their way when put on another path different from where they were supposed to be on.
The connection with the tortoise was to become a reminder of our own responsibilities to and with both our path and the past. The tortoise has always been one of the most significant symbols in Chinese culture, especially when it comes to longevity. It represents wisdom, stability, and the enduring nature of life, making it a powerful icon of immortality.
Serving as a reminder that the tortoise is known for its slow and steady approach, which emphasizes the importance of patience and perseverance. It became the ultimate connection to spirit often as our own connection to the eternal. That everything is spirit. In Chinese mythology, the tortoise is often associated with creation stories and spiritual beliefs. It is seen as a protector and a guide, embodying qualities that many aspire to cultivate in their own lives. The deep connections between the tortoise and concepts like health and eternal life enrich its role in various cultural practices and rituals. I wrote the entry below in June 1994.
My Travels with Lieh Tzu / Interpolations along the Way
Introduction – Your Writing becomes You
2. Remaining as the Tortoise
Maintain the thick skin of the tortoise. A hard outer shell impervious to unwanted intrusions. Stay to the one and only true path to understanding.
The only real importance found along the Way that will take you further, ever closer to your destination. Slow and steady. Ever ready to retreat within the inner workings of the Tao. Finding comfort. Retreating as the sage to mountaintops and vistas visited only by the chamois and nesting crane. Both forever up and out of harm’s way. In a haven of craggy outcroppings too precarious for those who only look to advantage and tender morsels that both represent to the utmost.
The outer shell growing tougher as adversity is encountered and allowed to roll off one’s back as the danger at hand comes and goes. Finding comfort inside one’s protective shell. Keeping kicked around and badgered by those whose only advantage can be gained by putting an end to you.
Lessons to be learned with accomplishments kept simply to oneself. Moving forward all the while at an ever-moving standstill. Maintain the thick skin of the tortoise and simply keep plodding along to destinations unknown and unforeseen. Being sure to keep the wind at your back and a vision of final outcomes spread before you. 6/28/94
Number two of one hundred fifty-eight entries.
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