Friends

Those who do and those who don’t understand you – and never will!

I am sure that all of us have been here: you are explaining something to the assembled multitudes in great detail. Your audience of two looks on in rapt attention. “What a clever man,” you say to yourself, “what an erudite and intelligent man.” You deliver your main point and that is responded to with a bewildering question. You realize in a moment of lonely horror that they have not understood what you said, not at all. Whose fault is this? It is, of course, your fault. The great quest for human beings is to be understood and respected. Often our conversation, unfortunately, falls outside the “veil of understanding.” (1) The only way to obtain this connectivity, many believe, is through love. “In the stillness of your presence, you can feel your own formless and timeless reality as the un-manifested life that animates your physical form. You can then feel the same life deep within every other human and every other creature. You look beyond the veil of form and separation. This is the realization of oneness. This is love.” (2)

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The Journey

Passion: from whence all joy springs

What we most certainly admire about the artist, in any field, is their unbridled devotion to their craft. Many live an addled, tortured existence in their deepest desire to magnify their gift and bring it out into the world. As individuals, we hold a grudging respect and, some would say, admiration for the individual who has “thrown all caution to the wind” and bears down to create that one “what if piece.” What if I had not existed: would this creation have been brought to the world? In every breast beats the heart of the artist filled with curiosity and power and magnificence. We fail to act on this impulse because we do not like the consequences. This is one of those numerous apocryphal tales that wreak havoc on the aspirations of young people: that of the drunken, dissolute – and impoverished – virtuoso. It is better to live a life of quiet desperation than to step out into the world and take a chance – and maybe fail – with my life. “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city, you go into the desperate country and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.” (1)

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Hope

Faith: who do I have to believe in first?

I recently had the good fortune to be in Poland for Christmas. It was a lot like stepping into an anachronistic time. My impression of the Christmas season in my little village when I was young and our present-day holiday is mutually exclusive: the former is filled with family and food and religion, the latter is filled with “glitz” (1) and things and more things. We have forgotten the universal and essential message of Christmas that transcends all religions: faith is paramount. When you are willing to step away from empiricism and simply believe, supernatural forces are brought to bear. As John Paul II (1920-2005) tells us, “Have no fear of moving into the unknown. Simply step out fearlessly knowing that I am with you, therefore no harm can befall you; all is very, very well. Do this in complete faith and confidence.”

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Hope

Our exciting new beginning: the New Year dawns

We are said to be flowing streams of consciousness, or are we? What reality do I really occupy other than the immediate moment, which itself is brief and fleeting? How do I find that elusive peace that all of us so desire? As the New Year begins to set its course, we are all afforded an opportunity to start with a clean slate. Our “whiteboard” need not be impregnated with anything that we don’t put there ourselves: pain, jealousy, envy or regret, to name but a few. These emotions limit our opportunities for self-improvement. The secret, I maintain, is to find yourself in the present and yet cast a determined eye to the future. That being said, the past must be placed in its own context: it is “the past” and cannot be changed– get over its mistakes and plan for the immediate and for the future: your future. I am a true believer in concretizing images of an exciting, positive nature. It is easy to let the wandering mind project something negative and promulgate it into a fearful and unnecessary memory: an example. Yesterday as I was edging our car into oncoming traffic at a red light, I held out my hand to slow the approaching vehicles. The light turned green and I proceeded into the flow. In the process, however, I did not pay attention to the cars already moving to my right. The mind just assumed that I was part of one continuous movement. One car had stopped, however, and I nearly hit him. This image stayed with me for several days, the aftermath, the complications, the time, the cost: useless thoughts! I must learn to stop negative projections — no fear! This can be extended into life itself. I believe that we must not exist in a continual state of anxiety, but in a state of love: seeking the positive and dynamic experiences to fill each and every day.

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Hope

Enlightenment awaits those who try

In North America, as is well documented, the industrial worker is quickly disappearing. The concept of quitting school in Grade Ten and securing a well-paid job now exists in the realm of fantasy. There is a large group of individuals, however, that have little to no interest in university life, the costs and time of tertiary training seemingly unattainable. What happens to them? They become wage slaves: DBAWageslave.com. It is safe to say that few become titans of industry like Steve Jobs (1955-2011). The ranks of the working poor have overwhelmed entry-level positions. Visit any fast-food location and you will be shocked by the average age of your server or clerk: many are middle-aged, trying to survive on minimum wage.

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The Journey

Our dance with nature: is it a waltz or a tango?

Many years ago, during a moment of personal crisis, a friend of mine took me into a local park to visit a “magical tree”: his description, not mine. He had heard that the traditional people used to come to visit a giant spruce (1) for solace and inspiration, and had decided to try its healing powers. Now he wanted to share his experience with me. I find that all good friends are deeply concerned when you have problems and are always willing to help. This was a bit much, though. I went along mostly to humor him. The forest was confined by the local city and its suburbs. What is so interesting about the urban park phenomenon is that no one has told the trees that they are to be constrained or limited. As soon as we left the developed environs, the forest unfolded her charms. The noise stopped and was filled with the soft “cooing” of the birds, bugs and undulating leaves which is the signature of all natural and unlimited life. As we walked along the earthen path and penetrated further and further into the wilderness, if you could call it such, my frustrations and anxieties seemed to be less and less important. We are often told that our perception of the world (2) is the created reality that we occupy: all actuality is created by the self. This is easy to read and attempt to put into practice but much, much harder to do. I was reminded by something that I read from Anne Frank (1929-1945) “Look at all of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. … I’ve found that there is always some beauty left — in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you. … I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains. … The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy amidst the simple beauty of nature. … I firmly believe that nature brings comfort in all troubles.” (3)

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The Journey

Your life adventure: are you ready?

As I was out for a walk the other day, I passed countless people on the path coming in the opposite direction. This got me to thinking: until the very recent past, most of us propelled ourselves by our two feet. Other methods did exist: the palanquin, the sleight, the chariot, the buggy and the horse to name but a few. But for the most part, we walked. There is something about just slowing down and walking, isn’t there? Firstly, that “age-old gift” that few of us have time to subscribe to anymore is brought forward: thought. When we walk, we have time to think — think about the dilemmas that plague our daily lives: taxes, children, careers, our place in the cosmos—the list is understandably endless. It is, after all, my process of thought and not yours. You can’t help but surmise that, if every world leader was forced to walk for some distance before making a monumentous decision, the world would be a more peaceful place. “Many people nowadays live in a series of interiors…disconnected from each other. On foot everything stays connected, for while walking one occupies the spaces between those interiors in the same way one occupies those interiors. One lives in the whole world rather than in interiors built up against it.” (1)

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Hope

Sparkle and the world sparkles with you!

To sparkle means to shine brightly with flashes of light: my life should be a display of this metaphor, should it not? The BBC news and the media, in general, would suggest that few, if any, achieve this state, however. There has always been a surfeit of literature on the human condition and its perennial state of angst and suffering. “One third, more or less, of all the sorrow, that the person I think I am must endure is unavoidable. It is the sorrow inherent in the human condition, the price we must pay for being sentient and self-conscious organisms, aspirants to liberation, but subject to the laws of nature and under orders to keep on marching, through irreversible time, through a world wholly indifferent to our well-being, toward decrepitude and the certainty of death. The remaining two-thirds of all sorrow is homemade and, so far as the universe is concerned, unnecessary.” (1) Any look in another’s eyes at a stoplight would only reinforce this belief. But does this have to be so? I believe not. Yes, we need a full range of emotions to be truly human. In spite of this, happiness, peace, love, and curiosity are our natural bedfellows. We need but one essential element.

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Work

Anthropomorphism: should it be simply dismissed?

The birds, bats, bees and bugs that occupy our world are seemingly oblivious to us. They are but a part of a much larger animal kingdom. We exist in bizarre parallel time warps. When we as humans are forced to interact with that ethereal sovereignty, the consequences are usually unpleasant (and often fatal) for the non-human life forms, that is. Think of the last time you killed a cockroach or a mosquito. In truth, we have little to no respect for anything outside our limited field of consciousness: that includes people, as well — but, we will speak to that next week. How am I going to be a citizen of Planet Earth if I do not really acknowledge and laud the natural world? I can’t be, obviously. That being said, we are so attracted to Gaia, to Mother Earth, as represented in the virgin environment, that any time spent with her makes us feel renewed and rejuvenated. I wonder how we might achieve a link between these two necessary components of human existence. Great playwrights like Euripides (1) give us some insight. “The best and safest thing to keep a balance in your life is to acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.” Euripides is telling us that if we must find a way to truly live in harmony with the Earth and, additionally, with all its forms of life, we must speak with our very personal God — not easy!

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