Catalyst of Change – You & I

Catalyst of Change – You & I

09.29.2020

Several years ago during the season of Pentecost I discussed the Indian mythological god Shiva and his wife Parvati.  Theirs is a story that is as old as time and as pertinent as any today.  Theirs is not just the typical fantasy tale of imaginary creatures with unbelievable powers and whimsical and sometimes scary acts.  It is also quite possibly the first recorded history of racism.

There are several stories about how the Hindu god Shiva would tease his wife about her complexion.  Parvati had a darker hue of skin tone than her husband.  One story has her shedding her skin, taking the name Gauri, and then turning gold.  The sloughed-off skin took on a life of its own, becoming the goddess Kali.

There are other origins for Kali.  One tells that she is really the breathing being of the thoughts of another goddess known as Durga who furtively sought for an answer when embroiled in a battle with the demon Raktabija.  Still another legend maintains that Kali was killed immediately after birth and ascended to the heavens, only to mock her killer.  Kali became the revered goddess of a group of professional assassins known as the Thugs and they ritualistically went about killing people as a sacrifice to her.

Kali is depicted as a most gruesome character, usually all black and wearing a necklace of skulls.  Around her waist she wears a belt of severed arms or snakes with long tongues or fangs dripping blood.  Her hair is disheveled which, along with her other distinguishing characteristics, makes her one of the most recognizable mythological characters around the world.

Kali serves a real purpose, though as she represents ignorance and hatred.  She reminds us that death is a part of life, one phase of the evolution that the life cycle is and that while we are living, we need to address those things which need to be eliminated from our living.  The Sanskrit alphabet comes from the lettering on the skulls around her neck.  Kali often is illustrated as having four hands but two are always empty – seen as a sign of hope that one can always find more life to live.  In many of the myths about her, Kali is seen dancing on Shiva’s grave which reanimates him. 

In his book “Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes”, Steve Spangler has many interesting science experiments.  One involves the use of milk, food coloring, and liquid dish detergent.  About one-half a cup of milk is poured into a saucer or bowl.  Then several drops of various colors of food coloring are dropped carefully into the milk.  Lastly, one drop of liquid dish detergent like the brand Dawn is dropped into the middle of the milk.  What happens is a kaleidoscope of movement and color changes.

The detergent is a catalyst; all soap is.  Soap works to clean things not by any magical powers but by being a catalyst.  It changes the surface tension of the dirt molecules and releases their hold onto the object which is dirty.  Simply rinsing one’s hands in water does not clean them.  By applying soap, the surface tension is lessened and then the dirt is washed off by the water.  This is also works for something as small as the SARS-CoV2 or Covid-19 Corona virus.  Soap is its enemy if we would but use it frequently and thoroughly.

Parvati shed her skin and it became Kali.  There are, I am certain, a great many things you and I could “shed” in our lives to make our living better, smoother, cleaner.  Many religions encourage one to pray for one’s enemies – a really tall order, if you ask me.  Even Islam, while not specifically saying this, has a similar edict.  In fact, I think it is most easily understood how to do this by what the Quran says:  “…let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice.” (5:8)

It is not easy to pray for one who has wronged you.  However, if we don’t release that pain, let our beliefs release the surface tension of that negativity, then we become the gruesome depiction of Kali.  Faith, whether religious or spiritual, is a catalyst for change.  Perhaps you have faith in a deity or perhaps you simply have faith in living.  Go forward today and let that faith become your catalyst for change.  Allow it to release the surface tension of past hurts so that you can move forward and shine like the golden skin of Parvati.  Just like the drop of detergent in the milk creates a seemingly never-ending wonderment of activity, releasing hurt through prayer and faith can create a new living, glorious and amazing.  You and only you can be the true catalyst of change for your life.

Tonight is the first of several debates in which words will be tossed about and promises made.  Hopefully, we will hear ideas that will provide a catalyst for change in the very near future.  Traditions are wonderful as are the stories of old such as Shiva and Kali.  However, we must learn from them and move forward, becoming our own catalyst of change for the future.

Lessons from a Legend

Lessons from a Legend

09.28.2020

In 1956 the only perfect game ever in baseball’s World Series ended with the catcher jumping into the pitcher’s arms.  The moment became iconic but not as iconic as some of the catcher’s sayings.  One cannot talk about Lawrence Peter Berra, better known as Yogi, without first acknowledging his baseball ability.  Yogi Berra was not just a legend on the field in his nineteen years of consecutively playing for the New York Yankees (still me favorite team because of Mr. Berra) and considered one of the greatest catcher’s ever to have played the game, he became a legend off the field.

A “yogi” is someone who practices the eastern spirituality and exercise known as yoga.  Regardless of how you define yoga, whether it is a religion, a spirituality, or a philosophy, I think we might be able to agree that above all, yoga is a discipline.  Those who practice it and teach it are often referred to as a yogi.  Lawrence Berra and a few of his ball-playing friends went to a movie one night and Berra made a comment about the yogi.  From that night on, his teammates gave him the nickname “Yogi” and it remained his entire life.

Often proclaiming “I didn’t really say everything I said”, Yogi Berra quickly became famous for his words as well as his catches.  Berra was born in St. Louis, Missouri and lived on the same block as his childhood friends, another baseball legend Joe Garagiola.  He dropped out of school in the eighth grade and later served aboard a navy vessel supporting the D-Day invasion.  After World War II ended, he played minor league baseball and worked his way to the big leagues.  Playing on a team with other legends such as Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra led to the in runs batted in for seven consecutive years.  His philosophy of life was illustrated as he explained when asked about his swinging at bad pitches, “If I can hit it, it’s a good pitch.”

Berra also coached the team he played on and once when asked about a season that wasn’t going so great, Yogi Berra replied: “It ain’t over till it’s over.”   Once someone approached Yogi and told him he looked cool. Berra responded: “Thanks, you don’t look so hot yourself.”  To many, his lack of a formal education was reflected in his speech patterns and the often misplaced participles.  He one expressed concern about having the sun in his eyes playing a “night” game in California, “night game” meaning a starting time for 7 P.M. on the east coast but 4 P.M. in California by explaining “It gets late early out there.”

Like the yogi from which his nickname originated, Yogi Berra could also teach us a thing or two about living.  “I never blame myself when I’m not hitting, I just blame the bat and if it keeps up I change bats. After all, if I know it’s not my fault that I’m not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?”  All too often we spend far too much time getting mad at ourselves for things beyond our control.  And sometimes, we waste time being mad at ourselves when we really should spend that time making better decisions.

“You better cut that pizza into four pieces because I’m not that hungry enough for six pieces.”  Yogi Berra’s famous quote may seem funny but it offers us some good advice about living today. 

We need to realize that life is life but we get to choose how we live it and we need to choose wisely.  Don’t take on more that you can successfully accomplish.  Consider what you can do and then give it your best effort.  You can make a difference and change the world and it can start today.  After all, “it ain’t over till it’s over” and who’s to say what “over” really is?

The Blessing of Her Memory

The Blessing of Her Memory

09.27.2020

If you are a reader of this blog then you know when someone of note passes away, this blog is dark out of respect.  Thus I have been silent the last three days since the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

Born the daughter of a Jewish Ukrainian immigrant and granddaughter of Polish immigrants, Joan Ruth Bader was encouraged to study hard and take advantage of all life and this nation had to offer.  She married Martin Ginsberg, her college sweetheart, and moved to Fort Sill, OK where he was in the military.  While there she obtained her first government job, only to be demoted upon becoming pregnant with her first child.

A year later she enrolled at Harvard Law School, where she was one of only 9 women in a class of about 500 men.  Four years later the Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter rejected Ginsburg for a clerkship position due to her gender. She was rejected despite a strong recommendation from Albert Martin Sacks, who was a professor and later dean of Harvard Law School.  Later she coauthored a book on civil law in Sweden, an experience that would inspire Ginsberg since Sweden had 25% of law students as females and judges could continue to work while pregnant.

In 1972, Ginsburg co-founded the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union.  Legal scholars and advocates credit Ginsburg’s body of work with making significant legal advances for women under the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.  Through her work and legal arguments, Ruth Ginsberg practiced what she preached, believing in the ideals set forth by the US Constitution.

Ginsburg died on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, and according to Rabbi Richard Jacobs, “One of the themes of Rosh Hashanah suggest that very righteous people would die at the very end of the year because they were needed until the very end”.  One could argue that we still very much need Ruth Ginsberg but hopefully, her legacy will be a life that provides the inspiration to present and future generations.  Hers was definitely a life well lived… striving for liberty and justice for all.

The Shell Game of the Truth

The Shell Game of Truth

09.21.2020

It is a game that historically dates back to ancient Greece although written record of it only dates back to the sixteenth century in England.  Natives have been seen playing the game with dried peas and walnut shells while Regency England used larger shells or broken cups and sewing thimbles.  Known as thimblerig in nineteenth century traveling fairs but common in metropolitan areas such as New York City or Stockholm where street corner games today use something as insignificant as a bottle cap, it continues to be a challenge many cannot resist.

The shell game is simple.  Three identical objects are placed in front of a bystander.  Under one of these identical objects, a smaller object is placed.  Once the smaller object is placed under one of the three identical objects so that it cannot be seen, the objects are shuffled without ever leaving the playing surface.  The smaller object remains under the larger object during the time it is shuffled.  Since the three larger objects are all identical, the bystander has a difficult time in knowing where the smaller object under the larger identical object is.  The challenge is correctly identify which larger object contains the smaller object with just one guess.

The reality of the shell game is not one’s powers of observation but the legality and honesty of the one presenting the game.  Known as “confidence tricksters”, these game owners will often employ sleight of hand to move or hide the play during the shuffling.  Another fraudulent aspect of such games is convincing potential players they are legitimate by allowing a player to win before causing them to lose.  This is so prevalent that the term “shell game” now is used to signify any fraudulent confident scheme whose purpose is to defraud or present untruths.  While some tourist areas have casinos with similar games played for money, most metropolitan areas and governments consider the shell game a “short con”, a brief exercise whose sole purpose is to perpetrate an untruth.

The Dhola Epic is popular in northwestern India and it also has a shell game of sorts.  Telling the story of the Navargarh kingdom in a total of fifty episodes, this epic is sung at nightly village festivals.  A king, Pratham, has a wife, Manjha, who becomes pregnant from a grain of rice.  The king’s other wives convince him this child will be born a son, a son who will one day kill him and so the king orders a servant to kill Manjha in the woods. The servant cannot kill the woman, however, and instead takes Pratham the eye of a deer as proof of the alleged murder.  Manjha delivers a baby who is indeed a son and both Manjha and her son Nal are taken in by a merchant and provided food and boarding.

One day, so goes the Dhola myth, the merchant and his sons are taken prisoner by Pratham who is angry they cannot provide most cowrie shells.  Cowries are marine animals and their shell resembles an egg with a flattened side and a long crack or opening down the curved side.  Cowrie shells have their own myths attached and were used as money by many ancient cultures.  Nal promises the king Pratham more shells to gain the merchant’s release.  He meets, in his search for more shells, a demon king’s daughter named Motini.  Nal gambles with Motini and secures a promise of marriage from her.  To protect Nal from her father, Motini turns him into a fly and he then is able to destroy the magic duck that gave her father his evil power. 

Nal returns home but the merchant’s sons fall in love with Motini and throw Nal into the ocean so that they might have her.  They then offer Motini to the king in place of the cowrie shells.  Motini refuses to marry the king until her true love’s story is told.  During the “Nal Purana” or the story of Nal, an old man appears.  He is discovered to be the disguised Nal who tells his own tale.  Pratham realizes Nal is his son and the two are reunited, allows the return of Manjha, and Nal and Motini are married.  They have a son named Dhola who then has his own chapter or several in this myth regarding conflicts with the god Indra.  Fear not; Dhola’s story also has a happily ever after with another daughter’s hand obtained in marriage. 

At the heart of the India mythology about Dhola as well as the shell game of traveling shows and street corner con artists is a question of ego. Pratham doubted himself and so was taken in by the other wives telling him Manjha’s son could overpower him and usurp him on the throne via murder.  The player approached by the con artist doesn’t want to seem like he/she cannot find the hidden object and so they take the bet of the three shells.

What kind of shell game do we play with our own lives?  Ask a person if they have a secret and the quickness of their response will most likely, if the answer is no, tell the true story.  The quicker the response the more likely the negative response is not true.  We all have secrets of one degree or another.  That is perfectly normal and absolutely within our right.  It becomes a problem when we try to pretend we are something we are not and usually the purpose of such does not start out as malicious.    

This is not about to become a lesson in how we present ourselves to the world.  The truth is that we all wear masks of one type of another.  For some it is simply make-up, hair color, or perhaps a toupee.  For others, it is hiding behind a hat, heavy clothing, or simply living as a recluse. 

What is important is recognizing when people make us unwilling participants in a shell game.  Political rhetoric is quite popular and covered by the media.  What is not part of such rhetoric, however, is truth.  It is easy and permissible to shout “Shame on them!” but really, the onus for verifying the truth in such is on us.  We need to take on responsibility as Nal did in the India myth.  All too often we fail to do so. 

Many religious pundits employ the same methods, using sensationalism to sell their point rather than accurate quoting of the sacred texts and stories.  Before we point a finger at them and hold them accountable which we certainly should do, we must first hold ourselves accountable.  Before we criticize another for their presentation of themselves and their actions, we need to look in the mirror and be honest with ourselves.

Each shell game is but half of the picture.  It uses half of a larger object to hide the whole smaller object.  We need to make sure that we follow the example of Motini in showing her love for Nal and tell our complete story.  That does not mean we have to stop strangers on the street and divulge our secrets to all.  It does mean we must live truthfully, though, and not perpetrate a fictitious version of ourselves.  An honest character is, after all, the most valuable currency for living.

Justice Ginsberg

09.20.2920

As the sun rose in the first day of the Jewish New Year, the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg was announced. The days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are known as the Days of Awe but this year…. For so many this year gearing of her death, they will be the Days of Mourning.

Already online I am reading posts decrying the sentiment “Rest in Peace” with people claiming it is rude yet typical for Christians to say this of Justice Ginsberg. The Jewish equivalent is “May her memory be a blessing.”

Am I suppressing her culture or merely being respectful as my culture has taught me? I do hope she is now at peace, free from the physical illnesses experienced in her later years and the stress of her time on the Supreme Court. I know her memory, as she was in her life, will be a blessing to us all. She herself an example of a culture suppressed and discriminated against.

Justice Ginsberg once said “The state controlling a woman would mean denying her full autonomy and full equality.”. Substitute the words “a different culture” and you have just described the history of mankind.

Thank you, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, for being a role model, a great human being, and a wonderful citizen of the world. You will be missed and honored.

The Challenge of Creating Tomorrow

The Challenge of Creating Tomorrow

09.18-19.2020

Yesterday the name for the one deity which led the charge for monotheism, the one deity referenced by the three Abrahamic faiths, was “Elohim Shophtim Ba-arets”.  It means “the God who judges in (on) the Earth” and I must confess, it is not one of my more well-liked names.

The reason for my displeasure with this name is not really the name but rather the context in which it is used.  You see, it appears in the Book of Psalms and references faith in the deity judging one’s enemies.  Because one is considered faithful, it is assumed that one’s enemies are not and will be judged and punished accordingly.

My problem is that is seems to imply a deity that shows favoritism.  What if I am the one in error and not my enemies?  Being faithful does not make me perfect; it makes me a believer.  Today’s word goes together with yesterday’s and…you guess it…I have a bit of a problem with it as well.  It is “El Nekamoth” or “the God who avenges”.

Obviously I am not bloodthirsty and so seeking vengeance on someone is not a hobby of mine.  I believe that I have enough to do trying to live my own life and I really don’t try to live others for them.  These two names do raise some interesting questions, however, and I think we should give them consideration.

What exactly falls under the prevue of “justice”, the purpose for judging someone?  How do we define “avenge” and is it something best left to the spirit(s) or should we attempt such?  Is there a difference between seeking revenge and avenging?

The website “diffen.com” clarifies the issue for avenge and revenge by stating “Avenge is a verb. To avenge is to punish a wrongdoing with the intent of seeing justice done. Revenge can be used as a noun or a verb. It is more personal, less concerned with justice and more about retaliation by inflicting harm.”

Once synonymous, the two words today have different meanings.  Avenge today implies the process of obtaining justice while revenge is a more personal active physical deed, almost always involving pain or harm for the purpose of retaliatory recompense for real or imagined damages.

In the usage of these two names, the deity is expected to protect the faithful by avenging ill will and/or wrong doings, thereby carrying acts of revenge to assuage the injured party or parties.  Such beliefs allowed the people to bear the hardships brought upon them by their faith and I fully understand that.  I just have a problem with a deity being both a god of love and revenge.  For some, revenge is not only pleasurable, it is a form of love. 

In an article for the Association of Psychological Science, Eric Jaffe wrote:  “A few years ago a group of Swiss researchers scanned the brains of people who had been wronged during an economic exchange game. These people had trusted their partners to split a pot of money with them, only to find that the partners had chosen to keep the loot for themselves. The researchers then gave the people a chance to punish their greedy partners, and, for a full minute as the victims contemplated revenge, the activity in their brains was recorded. The decision caused a rush of neural activity in the caudate nucleus, an area of the brain known to process rewards (in previous work, the caudate has delighted in cocaine and nicotine use). The findings, published in a 2004 issue of “Science”, gave physiological confirmation to what the scorned have been saying for years: Revenge is sweet.

“A person who has been cheated is [left] in a bad situation—with bad feelings,” said study co-author Ernst Fehr, director of the Institute for Empirical Research in Economics at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. “The person would feel even worse if the cheater does not get her or his just punishment.  Theory and experimental evidence shows that cooperation among strangers is greatly enhanced by altruistic punishment,” Fehr said. “Cooperation among strangers breaks down in experiments if altruistic punishment is ruled out. Cooperation flourishes if punishment of defectors is possible.”

In other words, the possibility of justice being meted out in the form of retaliatory punishment encourages cooperation because it instills an expectation of fairness.  That I actually can understand and feel it makes the naming of a deity based upon an avenging demeanor more palatable. 

There are also two other similar names used for this deity of these three monotheistic religions.  They are “Jehovah Hashopet or “the Lord the Judge” and Jehovah El Gemuwal, “the Lord God of Recompense.”  I freely admit I like recompense better than revenge.  Recompense implies fairness in compensation while revenge denotes punishment and pain to me.

I wonder if my conundrum, the enigma of whether I want my deity to be an avenging deity or a compensating deity, was felt by those early believers.  Perhaps it depends on how recently one feels to have been wronged or the extent to which one felt wronged.  As of this date, I have not found a name for this deity that translates into “God of Fairness”.  Maybe the key is in how one defines what is right and what is wrong.  But then, the context comes into play and we should consider that what is right for one might not be right for another yet not necessarily be wrong enough for the need of revenge or recompense. 

In early 2001, a research team led by Cheryl Kaiser of Michigan State surveyed people for their belief in a just world by seeing how much they agreed with statements like “I feel that people get what they deserve.”  Sadly, the events of September of that year changed the minds of many and more and more people wanted revenge for the bombings and murders of almost three thousand innocent victims from over eighty countries.

Michael McCullough, author of “Beyond Revenge: “The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct” states:   “You have to have some way of maintaining relationships, even though it’s inevitable some will harm your interests, given enough time.”  Revenge began as an altruistic punishment but, McCullough and his research team believe, a secondary system of human interaction has evolved.  The act of forgiveness is a system “that enables people to suppress the desire for revenge and signal their willingness to continue on, even though someone has harmed their interests, assuming the person will refrain from doing so again in the future.”

My problem with revenge is that it is not an answer that permanently solves anything.  It may begin with an attempt to right a perceived wrong but it just invites payback which requires more revenge which invites more payback, etc., etc., etc.  I like forgiveness as a practice for human interaction much, much better.  That leads us to another, more palatable name of this deity – El Nose, the God who forgives. 

I will also confess that I never really expected to want to worship something whose name sounds like a part of the face but… I prefer a forgiving deity or human for that matter rather than a vengeful one.  After all, when we forgive we are looking to the future and not just living for the sweet second that revenge affords.  It is important to consider tomorrow and live today as if our lives and the future depended on it because … it does.

A Rose by Any Other Name

A Rose by Another Name

09.17.2020

It is, on many calendars, the month of September.  September is named from the Latin “septum” which means seven and is the first month with a numbered name that is found in incorrect order on the calendar, the result of July and August being added and named after Roman Emperors.  This the month named “seen” is actually the ninth month.  September begins the meteorological autumn although the autumnal equinox does not actually fall until the third week of the month.  So while September is the month named seven, it is actually the month numbering nine on the calendar.

September is the sixth month on the astrological calendar and, while it falls in the middle of the Christian Pentecost, it is the beginning of the ecclesiastical calendar of the Eastern Orthodox Church.  September is also the beginning of new things, such as the start of the academic year for many school children lucky enough to attend organized educational classes.  Thus, while today marks the beginning of somethings, for others it is simply another day.  Like every day, it affords us all another chance to be better people.

As we learned last year during Advent when we discussed the various religions of the world based upon their Creation mythologies, there are many theories about how we became what we see in the mirror today.  Mankind, regardless of which creation myth you adopt, is believed to have had its origins in the areas known as Mesopotamia, the Fertile Crescent, and northern Africa.  From there, the species of primates known as man/woman spread and mankind emigrated.  Where mankind went, stories originated, stories that became myths and, in some cases, religions. 

So far this month, in a couple of posts, I have studied the ancient mythologies of our ancestors.  For some these are just the makings of a Holly wood movie but for others, they form the basis of life-long rules for living and worship.  For many of us, however, the ancient myths bear little resemblance to the realities of our modern beliefs.  The exception to this is found in the cultures of India and China.  The myths of their ancestors are not merely bedtime stories.  They form the basis of their society and their lives.

Of all the mythologies we have discussed, those the Eastern cultures might be the most valuable for future living.  Though one might expect industrialized nations will always hold the prominence in the world they currently have, the mere size of these Eastern countries indicate they will soon gain an important place and role in future living.  With China boasting a population of almost 1.5 billion people and India with over 1 billion, a number expected to grow, these two countries will soon take their place as major players on the world stage. Their ideologies cannot be dismissed as simply “foreign”.  The mythologies of these nations reflect their collective soul.

The country of India has created many things we currently take for granted.  The first irrigation for farming was used in the Indus Valley region of northwestern India in 4500 BCE.  Woven cotton cloth appeared in Mohenjo-Daro around 2500 BCE.  Around 1200 BCE, nomads from Europe invaded the Indus Valley.  These nomads gave themselves the name “Aryan” which translated as superior.  Unlike the twentieth century connotations of this word, used by Adolf Hitler to define a race of non-Jewish Caucasians, these Aryan nomads were dark, olive-skinned Eurasian tribes.

The word Aryan is a myth itself.  It is derived from the Sanskrit word “arya” or “ariya”.  As mentioned before, it translates as superior, noble, or a person of higher consciousness.  The Name “Iran” is a modern version of this word.  Anyone who can trace their ancestry to Europe is known as a Caucasian, a name taken from the Caucasus Mountains in a region that for many centuries was controlled by Russia and has been, based upon the historical period, a part of both Europe and Asia.  People from this region did not live in dessert climes and so were not as tanned as their counterparts from the warmer regions.  Hence, we have the difference in skin colorations of the two groups.  The racial group who can trace its ethnicity to those living in the Caucasus Mountains are known as American Indians. The racial designations have no importance when regarding intelligence or potential.  They are just names and classifications and, as we have seen, can be misleading. 

Shakespeare wrote the now-famous quote: “A rose by any other name…”  With all due respect to the Bard, that statement might very well be the other definition of myth – not a story but a falsehood.  As we have seen with the nomadic Aryans, a name can have great power but also great hurt.  The word Aryan and its usage by Hitler is generally traced to a mistranslation of the Rig-Veda, an Indian collection of religious writings and mythologies, into the German language.  Aryan became associated with the German word “ehre” and … well, the rest is a very tragic history.

We like to think we have progressed light years since the days of myths and millenniums past but really, perhaps we have just gone around and are now back to them.   There are an estimated three hundred and thirty million deities in the mythologies of the past including… avatars.  You thought they were a new high tech invention?   A rose by any other name …. Might just be a flower from the past suddenly seen in a new light.  If we open our eyes to today, what will we see?

The Tides of Today

The Tides of Today

09.15-16.2020

Leonardo da Vinci described water as “the driving force of all nature”.  The 1937 Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to a Hungarian biochemist, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi.  He is noted for a great many things but I think his definition of water is the best.  “Water is life’s mater and matrix, mother and medium.  There is no life without water.”

As I write this, Hurricane Sally is inching her way towards the MS-AL-FL gulf coastlines. Historic flooding is predicted with catastrophic damage expected. The Weather Channel reporter is standing in a driving rain pleading with people to be safe and make intelligent choices: “I do not want to report your death.”

This year of 2020 has been quite eventful in disastrous ways. COVID-19 is left no continent untouched. Science has been put on trial by those who are sadly ignorant and often just plain stupid.

We all see life each and every day.  Like the water Lao Tzu spoke of, life can sometimes attack us and we might feel we cannot withstand it.  With knowledge though, and thought, we can learn to be flexible and by being flexible, gain strength.  Knowledge is power when applied properly.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr summed it up:  “Science investigates religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control.”

Water plays an important role in the world. We need it for survival. This year it has been instrumental in preventing transmission of Covid-19. Today though it will be too powerful and cause much dismay and wreak havoc. At the same time, those on the western Pacific coastlines desperately need it to combat the hundreds of wildfires destroying millions of acres that, to date, have killed almost forty people and left over fifty missing.

Water is necessary for all living things, animal or vegetable and sadly it is not as abundant as the world needs.  Water became the answer when one man sought to discover what the world was made of by rational thought.  Known as Thales of Miletus, he is considered to be the first philosopher.  Because water is essential to all living things, Thales reasoned that everything must be derived from it.  Water exists in several forms: solid when cold; a gas when heated; liquid in what most consider its natural state.  From this beginning and the reasoning of Thales of Miletus comes the modern theory that all matter can be reduced to energy.

The Tao philosopher Lao Tzu also considered the philosophical properties of water in the sixth century BCE.  “Nothing in the world is more flexible and yielding than water.  Yet, when it attacks the firm and the strong, none can withstand it, because they have no way to change it.  So the flexible overcome the adamant; the yielding overcome the forceful.  Everyone knows this, but no one can do it.”

Thales reasoned that the earth grew out of the water that surrounded the land masses.  Over seventy-one percent of the earth’s mass is water, after all.  His student Anaximander reasoned that the earth must float on air.  If water supported the earth, he asked, what supported the water?  Anaximander believed everything could be reduced to air.  While neither man was correct, their argument/counterargument form of deduction still forms the basis for philosophical thought and discussion today.

OF course, though, philosophy encourages questioning and someone did just that after Thales and Anaximander.  Heraclitus proposed a “theory of opposites”.  He believed that rather than everything being derived from a single element, there was an underlying principle of change.  The world to him consisted of opposing tendencies.  His argument to support this theory was the basic fact that the path that went up a mountain was the same path that went down the mountain.  Another analogy was the fact the while a river remains constant, the water within it is constantly moving and flowing.  Heraclitus proposed that the reality we see as constant is really a reality of processes and changes.

Later Xenophanes would suggest that the knowledge we claim to know is just a hypothesis.  Our searches for knowledge start from working hypotheses but the actual ultimate knowledge, the “truth of reality” will always be beyond our grasp to understand.  Xenophanes believed in a cosmic composition of life, based upon two extremes – wet and dry.  He combined the Milesian ideas of air and water with Heraclitus’ views of opposites and used fossils to support his theories.  This was the first evidence-based argument recorded.

Philosophy would not remain in this mode of thinking for long.  It would evolve into theories based upon something being everything and nothing being impossible to be something.  We’ll save that for another day, though.  What we should focus on today is whether or not we are one element or living in a state of contrasting opposites.

Night falls at different times on the earth as the planet revolves through its orbit around the sun.  Just as the timing of the night is different so does what nighttime looks like.  For the child growing up in a refugee camp, night might be a period of cooler temps but scary flashes of light indicating mortar rounds being fired.  For the child snug in their bed in Paris, the City of Lights, nighttime is a warm blanket and a calming bedtime story.

Today I heard a story about a school-aged child whose class went on an over-night field trip to a state camp.  The two-day excursion included nature walks and environmental lessons.  The child’s class was to be the last to experience such a visit as the camp was deemed inefficient with a delinquent revenue stream.  Sitting around the campfire, the children listened to the sounds of the night.  Two weeks later, as he closed down the program and prepared for his next job, the director of the program received an envelope of thank-you notes from that last class.

The drawings of the various birds, and other wildlife discussed he had expected but it was the simple handwritten note of a young girl that truly touched him.  “Thank you,” she wrote, “for showing me what creation is really about.  I liked the walking, the trees, the flowers, and learning how to reuse things.  I liked seeing the baby rabbits and although it was scary, even the snake in the grass on the trail.  My favorite, though, was learning that nighttime can be nice.  At my house I cannot see the stars.  I see the restaurant signs.  We don’t have quiet on our block.  We hear cars and sometimes, gunshots.  At camp, I got to see the stars and hear the quiet and then the call of the night animals.  What I saw at camp was creation.  Bobby next door calls it Allah and my grandma calls it God.  I am just going to call it life.  Thank you for showing me what life can be.”

 Wallace Stevens remarked that “Human nature is like water. It takes the shape of its container.”  The environment with which we surround ourselves influences us.  Alysha Speer compared life and water:   “You never really know what’s coming. A small wave, or maybe a big one. All you can really do is hope that when it comes, you can surf over it, instead of drown in its monstrosity.”

Many cultures use water as a type of rebirth, a cleansing of the old in preparation for the future.  Da Vinci pointed out that “in rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes.” 

Man does not live very long without water.  It is more than essential; it is life itself – both in birth and in destruction.  Most of us forget to really use water in our daily living.  Charlotte Eriksson offers us the best way, I believe, to face the morrow and our life.   “Take a shower, wash off the day. Drink a glass of water. Make the room dark. Lie down and close your eyes.  Notice the silence. Notice your heart. Still beating. Still fighting. You made it, after all. You made it, another day. And you can make it one more.  You’re doing just fine.”

Be safe. Be wise. Be…. and give thanks you can.

A Future Realized

A Future Realized

09.14.2020

The Hindu mystic Swami Vivekananda believed “The will is not free; it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect, but there is something behind the will which is free.”  American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “Shallow men believe in luck.  Strong men believe in cause and effect.  Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end preexists in the means, the fruit in the seed.”

Mankind has always been curious and that curiosity has fueled a quest for knowledge that continues today.   Regardless of the period of history or location on the planet or even in space, we are constantly learning as we live.  Living in the northwest part of the USA, young adult author Richelle Goodrich sums up our ascent into living and the subsequent knowledge gained from it this way:  “You are here to make a difference, to either improve the world or worsen it. And whether or not you consciously choose to, you will accomplish one or the other.”

I fear the real truth is much simpler and in its simplicity, much more complicated to live.  We cannot spend time on this earth without affecting it.  We occupy space and the air we inhale and exhale affects our environment.  We all have a carbon footprint and that also affects the future.  How we gain in knowledge is really up to us.  That is the simple part. 

Today more will be classified on the western coast of the USA as missing, victims of the multiple massive wildfires consuming everything in their path. The numbers of COVID-19 victims will rise and later Tuesday, Hurricane Sally will make her presence known in the southern Gulf Coast shoreline.

Are we cursed or simply experiencing the results of our living? We live an imprint of our living each day and whether you call it a cycle or the Greenhouse Effect, one can no longer deny we have sorely mistreated Mother Nature. Today we are writing the myths of tomorrow and sadly, they will be the myths of cause and effect, of the lessons in over-indulgence of COVID-19 parties and dismissal of Greenhouse effects. We who claim belief in Creation stories have forgotten to honor them.

The complications arise when we live or fail to live our beliefs. We do make a difference by being on this planet and we will either leave it a better place or worsen it. The future is the fruit of the seed of our actions today. What will you decide to do? How will your curiosity lead to greater knowledge? Tomorrow’s story us ours to write. Will it be an action story or a tale of woe? The future is the effect of the cause to which we attend. What fruit will be plant today for the future to harvest?