Out of what do we make a life? How do we understand who we are and what we are supposed to do? We still see wrist bands saying WWJD, and we get instruction from churches, governments, teachers (and noisy bloggers!) about how we are to live. I remain primarily inspired by the Bible, even while not taking it literally.
Two well known stories come to mind. One is the story of the five loaves and two fishes. It is told in two different ways- the feeding of the five thousand and the feeding of, as I recall, the three thousand. Either way, there is a large crowd, they are hungry, and there is nothing to eat. Jesus asks that what food is available be gathered up, and everyone eats, and the remains fill multiple baskets.
The other story is of healing a blind man. He keeps calling to Jesus, and Jesus stops and asks him what he wants. Jesus' question has a hint of impatience about it, as if he is being interrupted while walking, talking or otherwise engaged. Certainly it is a somewhat different reply than he gives in other settings. The man says he wants to receive his sight. Jesus asks if the man believes he can restore his sight, and the man answers yes. Jesus applies a paste of spit and dirt, and scales fall from the man's eyes, and he can see.
These stories seem like non-literal parables, where the story is told about Jesus rather than Jesus telling the story. Regardless of their literality, they speak to me about how we learn to live. I have never seen or heard of an eye disease in which scales fall from the patient's eyes. I feel the story refers to spiritual blindness, to self unawareness. It is through spiritual intervention and Jesus that we lose the scales, the armor, that covers our 'sight', our inner sight, and then we see, anew and differently. The feeding of the crowd has less to do with bread and more with scraps. Everyone thinks there is nothing to eat. Instead, out of scraps and odd bits of food, a meal is made.
Our lives are no different. We cannot be told how to live and what to value. Many people and institutions try, some more repressively than others, but how we live is always found within us. It is found in philosophical reflection and experience. We all have the experience of blindness, of unknowing, that precedes knowing. The armor we use to protect us not only from the world but from our own feelings must fall away for us to truly see, and live in accordance with reality and our emotions.
When we are young, we see the homes, lives, careers, cars and friends of our parents, and wonder how we will make a life. I certainly felt I had to create a life of a certain type, and that it should all come together in one great plan. It didn't, and I felt like a failure, and pretty lost as well. We come only gradually to realize that our lives, homes, careers, families, are built out of the parts we find along our life's journey. We are all made of scraps, our lives and the people and things we love all little pieces of other things. No one comes into a life preformed, even those who are quite wealthy. Especially those who are quite wealthy, witness Nicky Johnson (dec'd) and Paris Hilton. When we think we have everything, we find we have nothing with which to form a life of our own.
In a more macroscopic sense, everything we do is made from scraps. We say we refine iron out of the earth, but from the earth's perspective, we only take a common mineral out of it and use a bit to make fancy toys. We slaughter trees to make paper things we throw away. We proudly build stick houses from more trees, and few of those homes will last 100 years. Almost all the trees would have lived that long.
We build from scraps, we only see after blindness. We must remember that the physical lives we are so proud of are nothing but scraps, nothing but dust and clay.
Ted
Two well known stories come to mind. One is the story of the five loaves and two fishes. It is told in two different ways- the feeding of the five thousand and the feeding of, as I recall, the three thousand. Either way, there is a large crowd, they are hungry, and there is nothing to eat. Jesus asks that what food is available be gathered up, and everyone eats, and the remains fill multiple baskets.
The other story is of healing a blind man. He keeps calling to Jesus, and Jesus stops and asks him what he wants. Jesus' question has a hint of impatience about it, as if he is being interrupted while walking, talking or otherwise engaged. Certainly it is a somewhat different reply than he gives in other settings. The man says he wants to receive his sight. Jesus asks if the man believes he can restore his sight, and the man answers yes. Jesus applies a paste of spit and dirt, and scales fall from the man's eyes, and he can see.
These stories seem like non-literal parables, where the story is told about Jesus rather than Jesus telling the story. Regardless of their literality, they speak to me about how we learn to live. I have never seen or heard of an eye disease in which scales fall from the patient's eyes. I feel the story refers to spiritual blindness, to self unawareness. It is through spiritual intervention and Jesus that we lose the scales, the armor, that covers our 'sight', our inner sight, and then we see, anew and differently. The feeding of the crowd has less to do with bread and more with scraps. Everyone thinks there is nothing to eat. Instead, out of scraps and odd bits of food, a meal is made.
Our lives are no different. We cannot be told how to live and what to value. Many people and institutions try, some more repressively than others, but how we live is always found within us. It is found in philosophical reflection and experience. We all have the experience of blindness, of unknowing, that precedes knowing. The armor we use to protect us not only from the world but from our own feelings must fall away for us to truly see, and live in accordance with reality and our emotions.
When we are young, we see the homes, lives, careers, cars and friends of our parents, and wonder how we will make a life. I certainly felt I had to create a life of a certain type, and that it should all come together in one great plan. It didn't, and I felt like a failure, and pretty lost as well. We come only gradually to realize that our lives, homes, careers, families, are built out of the parts we find along our life's journey. We are all made of scraps, our lives and the people and things we love all little pieces of other things. No one comes into a life preformed, even those who are quite wealthy. Especially those who are quite wealthy, witness Nicky Johnson (dec'd) and Paris Hilton. When we think we have everything, we find we have nothing with which to form a life of our own.
In a more macroscopic sense, everything we do is made from scraps. We say we refine iron out of the earth, but from the earth's perspective, we only take a common mineral out of it and use a bit to make fancy toys. We slaughter trees to make paper things we throw away. We proudly build stick houses from more trees, and few of those homes will last 100 years. Almost all the trees would have lived that long.
We build from scraps, we only see after blindness. We must remember that the physical lives we are so proud of are nothing but scraps, nothing but dust and clay.
Ted
Wonderful and beautiful post! These are the readings I LOVE!! Keep them coming, you have a gift with words.
ReplyDeleteI second that. Our lives are scrapbooks and we are all busily pasting away. Nice entry.
ReplyDeleteDavid