Part IV: Wandering Child
Understanding, or attempting to understand, the world seems to be a favorite past time of the reflective thinker. Man has pondered, from the beginning of written history, one particular question: man asks why, and seeks the ultimate answer to why.
This line of questioning is very much at the root of this paper and growing from it stems the question of divisions. “Shall I first invoke the Muses?--or, praise Apollo and his dynamically balanced opposite (so’s not to be subjected to that same unnatural act which befell Pentheus)?
Should I pour a libation to Thoth?--or, perhaps, call upon Janis or Krishna or the one-eyed He, who is the mighty perch of the ravens, (Hugin and Munin, him whom drank from the well, well guarded by Mimir)?
Oh, indecision… The grotesqueness of physical youth plagues me. I’m quite inadequate to state anything more than a problematic “may”.
Perhaps my impossibility trope is not necessary. Perhaps none of this inquiry is necessary. Perhaps I’m not necessary. How difficult and disturbing my line of questioning becomes!
Intimacy-- as the movie Love Guru said--is: “Into Me I see“. The guru states that: “If you Can’t love yourself, you can’t love another”, With such pearls of wisdom as: “No where… to now here”… “To know something is good… to do something is God”… the movie challenges us to Love one another and be compassionately active in others lives.
Barukh Adonai yom Yakamas-lanu ha`El Yeshuateinu. Blessed be the Lord, who carries our burden; the God of our salvation. Selah. Psalm 68:19
The God that daily burdens us to performing work (avodah) to repair the world (tikkun olam) leaves us as co-laborers with Him as our Salvation. We are yoked together as beasts of burden. A yoke is not the burden but the means of bearing the burden. Yeshuah helps us with this burden.
Ha’El Yeshuateinu… The God of Salvation… bears peace all around. Barukh attah Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha-olam, she-hecheyanu ve-ki-ye-manu ve-higianu lazman ha-zeh… Blessed is the God that has sustained us and kept us alive. “ For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” Psalm 100:5 Barukh attah Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha-olam, hatov vocative.
Disturbance lies the counterbalance to empathy. If one may put their hand on the man from Galilee… and take a look at yourself … you can look at others differently. When observing compassionately Other, we find a much different way of Being for ourselves.
To demonstrate all of the 7 holy virtues of Humility, charity, kindness, patience, chastity, temperance and diligence in their acts… one need only remember the Golden rule. “Do onto others, as you’d have done to yourself.“ With compassion we can find salvation in the selfless acts of love that assist others in times of need. We can share another’s burden and thus lesson the Atlas like weight of the world.
Through empathy, we can recognize a problem and help subside a Herculean effort for another. Through caring, we can turn a tantalizing situation for a friend-- into a simpler more easily resolvable issue. Two minds are far better than one-- grabbing a second human to compliment your efforts, instantaneously doubles our IQ-- and 2 backs, 4 arms and 4 legs make our strength far more powerful and efficient! By sensing another’s plight, by communicating, we can actively assist and hold hands standing against a fight to survive.
The vicissitudes of life plague us all. No linguistic relativity (Sapir-Whorf hypothesis) or physical ailment can deny us this. We are irreversibly connected to a need to survive and, this commonality is irrefutable. Because we have needs, desires and we exist only in the presence of other… then, we must accept the suffering that comes from expectations (unrealistic or not) that are ingrained in each of us. Disappointment and loss are inevitable, but how we respond to our misjudgments is not written into stone until after we have acted.
I am of the firm belief that it is our responsibility as autonomous individuals in a modern society to be tolerant of differences and set-backs. The freedom of man comes at a high cost. We each are liberated into a Sisyphean conflict within ourselves. Do we do or do we die? A quest for survival places Ananke or Maat force-constraint-necessity.
The Germanic ideal of chaoskampf --struggle against chaos-- is man‘s desire for certainty pinned against impulse and wanton lusts for pleasure. Necessity versus Desire.
Chaos vs. Order. The excitement of spontaneity facing the most indubitable comfort of normative Form. Wants versus Necessity. Our independence against economic constrains is paramount to our existence; as is our social need to be included is irreversibly connected to responsibility.
Now days, life seems to offer few pigeonholes such as the haughty Pharisees or Autokrator’s. Pejorative life ambassador’s that rule with despotism and absolute power have dampened in popularity. Concentration of power to one individual is so highly frowned upon, that it’s almost silly when one proclaims that something: “Simply isn’t one’s fault”. The kid with the milk mustache, holding the empty carton, by law of simplicity, is guilty of drinking the milk.
Since Moses descended Mount Sinai, proclaiming to the Israelites that they were now the chosen people -- equals in the eyes and favors of God, and thus denoting the Atum, chosen man of God such as the Pharaoh-- life has been a whirlwind of individual and spiritual developments and discrepancies. Ultimately, the question arises can we accept our suffering, our pain, and own responsibility for our actions? Can we assimilate to Being and live authentically?
Galatians 5:22-23 speaks of the fruit of the spirit being gentleness, kindness and self-control (fruit is mentioned 42x’s in the bible mind you). The word Love is mentioned roughly 697 times give or take a few pending translations (wrath is the only word mentioned more it’s around 800 times).
Love is patient, love is kind; love is not envious… In 1 Corinthians: “The greatest of these…[virtues] is Love. Chara the Greek word for joy is a sense of constancy and hope. Being grateful and in the service of others allows one to suffer in joy. When I think to myself, “Why Me?”, I try to remind myself that I need to focus on being thankful for the opportunity to be alive and to serve in the changing of the world.
My attitude is a matter of choice even if the circumstances currently present were unforeseeable. No matter what circumstances we face in our lives, as James taught the apostles… we must endure. We as individuals have to cultivate joy, look for things to be grateful for…use adversity for some good to change the world positively. If we can see the silver linings of the grey clouds, together… perhaps there is hope?
I praise God for the blessings of the small things like birds, trees, water, breezes, food, puppies and chocolate… whatever, you get the picture it’s the little things in moderation that give me a sense of pleasure.
Thessalonians 5:16-18 teaches to give thanks in all circumstances, blessings in another day of creation. A perspective adheres it may not give way. Philippians 4: 6-7 teaches that death is not the last thing.
The English word for worry comes from the German word to strangle (ish kabbible-- I should be worried, right… can’t you take a choke??).JN 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you.. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” The word to choke seems exactly appropriate for the gut wrenching feeling that overwhelms us when we worry. In Philippians 4:7, “The peace of God, which passes all comprehension, shall guard.. [our] hearts and minds”; promises a peace which passes understanding if only we fear not and don’t seek an escape, withdrawal or removal from our problems. If we manage to not be apathetic, indifferent, unconcerned in situations
“So as you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I’m going to spit you out of my mouth” Revelations 3:16... Apathy… Aquinas called Acadia an uneasiness of mind, Dante a failure to love God with all one’s heart, all one’s mind, all one’s soul… a sin characterized by an insufficiency of love. Sloth the sin of omission rather than commission… and have faith that: “God causes all things to work together for good of those who love God, to those who are called to his purpose” Romans 8:28.
Since emotions and expectations are a part of life, albeit annoying, so is anger. (Even the work of Christ included a temper tantrum that destroyed a temple’s misconduct in a rage by overturning tables…Righteous justice… Matthew 21:12). Peace is a heart that’s tranquil even in the midst of adversity… we often worry about things that are not real likely to happen. When we change our focus from ourselves to others we find a sense of peace.
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