Rogue Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (RVUUF) Ashland, OR

Rev. Rich Lang, The Omega Center:
“The Universal Human as a Many-sided Person Living a Complexly Integrated Life”

One of the most basic questions we ever ask ourselves is, “Who am I?” Whitman famously answered this question with the words, “I contain multitudes.” Don’t we all? The ancient Greeks coined the word “polytropos” to describe a multi-sided, complexly integrated and “many turned” individual. The mythic figure of the poet Homer’s Odysseus was seen as an icon or archetype of such an individual, of whom it was said that he possessed “the grace of great things.” The ancient Greeks also coined the word “arete” to describe an excellent all-rounder, “someone with a respect for the wholeness or oneness of life, with an understanding that achieving harmony exists not in one department of life but in life itself.”

Consider with me the following eight dimensions of what it means to be a “polytropos,” a multi-sided, complexly integrated, and “many turned” individual, and to cultivate “arete”, to be an excellent all-rounder, understanding that wholeness and harmony exists not in one department of life but in life itself.
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