Our changing world

[gurdonark]

I started to preface this post with a long discussion of the incredibly dynamic and fluid world situation, and our country's precarious perch on the precipices of danger and potential. But really, what matters is not whether I can provide the x,000th "9/11 and the Internet, Gee, weren't they Something?" post.

My little world, after all, does not take place in desert nations, in the boardroom of major corporations, or among a rising prison population. I'm just one more guy who lives with one more girl in the middle of a life whoses guideposts continually become less effective in showing me what will happen next.

My little world takes place among brick tract homes, down the street from an elementary school. On a special Saturday, I take a cane pole and some worms to a tiny couple of fishing ponds in a county park an hour away, and maybe take an hour's hike, during which I span photos I take with a dollar store throwaway camera.
I have a lot of the things that make life worth living--a bright, loving wife, a caring family, a disposition to contentment, an interesting career, and a love for simple fun.

The biggest concern I face in my life is how to get my work done and organize my life better. Yet, when I turn on the radio, I hear so many tales of wonder and of woe. We have evolved as a world of people to the point that we can do incredible things. We have also proven ourselves capable of things that even the most ruthless and territorial ants would find unimaginable.

Sometimes I want to commit the sin of saying "Enough. I am satisfied". But there's just too much to do. We're entering an unpredictable time. We're all going to have to find our way clear--what does one do?

I have for years believed that the answers are fundamentally spiritual. The changes must be within if we are to really achieve a time in our country in which people work really effective change.
But it's so easy to use the "spiritual" as one more amulet--another cheap thrill. I abstain from doing x, so I must be a good person. I feel my heart strangely warmed when I sing y hymn, so I must be saving the world. I submit my doubts to a corrosive which erases all doubts, so I must be liberated through my faith.
I don't think that the thrill of feeling saved is salvation.

I guess I've come to believe in a wary spirituality. A belief that one's behavior must be informed by one's spiritual practice, or the practice is without value. I'm cautious of quick fix conversions, just as I know too many people who lost 25 pounds on one of those odd flake-type dietary supplements in a cannister, only to gain 30 pounds back. I guess I want to experience the "real stuff", and I cannot believe that the real is apathetic or complacent.

Ultimately, world peace will come, if at all, when wary people nonetheless find a common connection. I will pray tomorrow for a time when ethnic violence is not the norm. I will pray for a time when execution of criminals is abolished. I will pray for a time when we do not sit, enthralled, watching video footage of a parent beating a child. I will pray for a time when people are able to talk out their problems, not because they have sympathy of spirit, but because they believe no other option is acceptable.
I do not know how this will happen. I only know how to pray, and that simply. But imagine all the people, living life in peace....

Comments

excellent

[nancyjane.livejournal.com]

very thoughtful. makes me think.

my rational side tends to classify my spiritual essence as one possessing an utopian outlook, not necessarily uniform but one of peace as well.and i tend to let my spiritual self have veto power over all other models.

sometimes it's shy, not wanting to exert itself. wants to hide where it's safe, i practice no structured religions but i am of course a product to some degree of my culture/ upbringing. sometimes i think, doing without, is gonna make me a better person, for example.

then i try to think of the flip side. well, ok a few possible flip sides, to my many faucets of guilt. if i were god and i had bestowed so many gifts, good fortunes on someone like me, as i do posses now, i would be upset if i left them to waste. doesn't mean i have to wear each one out, either, but like a nice wardrobe, enjoy each piece, each gift, as appropriate to the occasion. my personality just so happens to wear the jeans out first.

then i think of, my parents, in a similar way. and their parents and their parents parents. the evolution of people, the evolution of my family. i'm doing a disservice to both if i don't enjoy the gifts my evolved life has given me. for instance, many people died making the country i live in the country that was possible to become what it is today. and it continues.

i think of my place, if i were to be blessed with children, teaching them to appreciate life the same way. i think the same, to a lesser degree of responsibility, to my friends, and people i meet along the way. of course they will make their own way, but it's possible if i share some of what i've been blessed with, it could enrich their lives as much as i'm enriched by theirs.

and i come back to those in my mind, not so blessed. not other american women my age, who just havent found a husband as loving as mine, but, those with drastically different beliefs, environments, reasons for living and motivations for doing what they do. many have come to this country, and integrated, and integrated their own cultures into ours, in various places. others can't fathom even talking to us/me. the ones that have come to this country, that i know, show me pictures of where they used to live - lejui, lived on a home on stilts in - snap snap snap cant remember the name of the river, shared with vietnam.... traveled by boat. there was no need to wear the wide variety of designer shoes she now possesses so proudly and enjoys wearing over the variety of terrain she explores here. her husband, adam... born here and lived here most his life, excepting a short stint to israel in middle school... feels guilty of his own personal new found wealth. his parents raised him a la abbie hoffman. lejui's take? enjoy it !!

i have to think, if i were in another country not so priveleged, and were to make, say, an internet friend in america, assuming a certain amount of comfort and security, and possibly wealth, came with that -- if i were to hear the woes of that person, not once or twice but a pattern of guilt, over what they had, i believe it could make me angry. i believe i might say, i'd take those problems off their hands. obviously they'd been given something they don't know how to appreciate.

it's made me unpopular with followers of christ, who believe that he was setting an example. i've always believed in the parodies of religion, the truths built by the leaders rather than by the followers... what if he really did die for our sins? taking his words, if they are his, quite literally. no more need for ritual sacrifices, no need to share our abundance with the gods, or other forces we cannot control... simply share the abundance itself. it's a hard concept to swallow, it seems so much better to try, at least try to "do" something. could be the best thing to do is to enjoy our lives.

just my thought

Re: excellent

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Very interesting comment, thanks for sharing it. I have found that perhap the one thing we've learned in the last year--or rather, many of us knew this, but the rest of us picked it up again, is to count blessings. A kind spouse, staunch friends, enough to eat, peaceful days.

I wish this were not a time when so many people are in such personal and material want, while a few have so much.

[marstokyo.livejournal.com]

Last night 20/20 had a piece on Christopher Reeve -- he mentioned a quote from Abe Lincoln he has in his office--

When I do good, I feel good
When I do bad, I feel bad
That's my religion

nothing could be more perfect, IMHO

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I like that. I think we all wish our moral compasses were so finely tuned! I know you're not a Tolkien person, but one of that series' appeal is that although the whole story is in essence religious, nobody worships or does the forms of religion. Good is well, good, and bad is bad, and appearances are not what matters--what is, is.
I like that idea.