{"id":63397,"date":"2025-02-20T22:48:19","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T21:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/?p=63397"},"modified":"2025-02-20T22:48:27","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T21:48:27","slug":"a-bagful-every-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/a-bagful-every-day\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bagful Every Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Five signs, one on top of the other, on a pole at the entrance to a parking lot in Berlin\u2014a cacophony of prohibitions and regulations. I<\/a>t\u2019s worth pausing to turn the quintet of signs into meditation material.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The soul wanders into the past of this property and its owners. Were bad experiences the cause of the fivefold \u201cno,\u201d or was it just excessive caution? How much anger inspired this signage? Whatever the case, the humor seems to have been lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wish I had the bell that the anthroposophical clown Frieder N\u00f6gge told me about, nearly 40 years ago. He had a performance in the Foundation Stone Hall of the Goetheanum one evening. While inspecting the hall that afternoon, he experienced what he described as the weight of the hall\u2019s atmosphere and thought, \u201cNo one will laugh here.\u201d So he walked through all the rows, often crawling on all fours, and summoned humorous elemental beings with the sound of a bell, inviting them to the evening performance. It was a success, reported N\u00f6gge. I think I would like to bless this pillar of unfriendliness with such a bell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Myself<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Then fate answers with a different kind of bell. On the opposite side of the street, an elderly man is carrying a litter grabber. With it, he deftly pokes at a pile of leaves and pulls out a pack of cigarettes, a beverage can, and other pieces of rubbish. In one elegant motion, everything he can grab goes into a plastic bag in a basket that he holds in his left hand.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Parking for tenants and visitors only! Vehicles parked illegally will be towed at the owner\u2019s expense! Drive slowly! No entry! Keep exit clear!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

More material for meditation. Even a cigarette butt and a bottle cap are not too small for him. The full plastic bag suggests that he has probably been on the street for an hour picking up litter. Like the signpost quintet, this story also has a past, but in this case, the eye-witness is here. So I ask: \u201cAre you doing this for yourself?\u201d A friendly face looks up from the ground and nods: \u201cI’m doing it for myself!\u201d I continue to look him in the eye in silence\u2014an invitation to find out more. \u201cIf I come by here tomorrow and see that it’s clean and there’s nothing lying around, then I’ll be happy!\u201d I ask how long he’s been doing this. Quite a few years, a bagful every day, he replies. He waves his hand, dismissing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is an interesting counterpoint to the signpost opposite. There, a fivefold prohibition hurls a \u201cno\u201d at all who drive or walk past; here, a thousandfold self-directive gives a silent \u201cyes\u201d to the place, to all the carelessness of the litter strewn about, and to all those who have thrown something away here. There the threat, here the invitation, there the command, here the concern. So many contrasts in these two situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The collector collects for his own sake and, thus, for the sake of everyone. Can it be that Adam Smith\u2019s classic economic metaphor of an \u201cinvisible hand\u201d applies here? In his book Wealth of Nations<\/em>, Smith (1723-1790) writes: \u201c[b]y pursuing their own interest [an individual] frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when they really intend to promote it.\u201d The gap between rich and poor, documented capitalism and environmental destruction, reveals just how destructive this belief in self-interest is for our coexistence and nature. If, however, self-interest does not mean wanting to have, but rather striving and satisfaction, then things look different, then the happiness of the individual promotes the happiness of all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maturing in Silence<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Secrecy seems to be of significance. The signpost segregates in a way that is visible to all\u2014a sign wants to and should be seen; the rubbish collector unites, completely in secret. Yes, it\u2019s the hiddenness that gives the good its dignity. I experienced this myself once\u2014I felt it physically\u2014in a little scene in the kitchen at home. It\u2019s an everyday story: the dishwasher is still full of clean dishes, so I go ahead and empty it so that the other family members can put their dirty dishes in. Later, I hear: \u201cOh, how good, the children have emptied the dishwasher!\u201d I can’t keep the truth to myself and blurt out who actually did the good. I pay for it immediately. It\u2019s a sensation that seizes the whole body, and in an instant, the body becomes heavier\u2014a previously unnoticed lightness is relinquished, as if invisible wings suddenly got tired. It brings to mind the observation that the act that one does without a witness is actually the free act. Rudolf Steiner takes meditation as an example of this. The decision to immerse oneself is free if no one knows about it because then it is only for one’s own sake. So, back to the litter collector: he probably had mighty wings on his back long before he was happy about the rubbish-free area the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Translation <\/strong>Laura Liska
Photo <\/strong>Wolfgang Held<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Five signs, one on top of the other, on a pole at the entrance to a parking lot in Berlin\u2014a cacophony of prohibitions and regulations. It\u2019s worth pausing to turn the quintet of signs into meditation material. The soul wanders into the past of this property and its owners. Were bad experiences the cause of the fivefold \u201cno,\u201d or was it just excessive caution? How much anger inspired this signage? Whatever the case, the humor seems to have been lost. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9159,"featured_media":63091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8823,8845],"tags":[11618,11619,8824],"class_list":["post-63397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reflection","category-social","tag-ausgabe-6-2025-en","tag-english-issue-8-2025","tag-spotlights"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}