question life more closely
It is our destiny to live with the wrong as well as the right kind of citizens, and to learn from them, the wrong-minded ones, as much or more as from the others. If we have not yet succeeded — after how many centuries? — in eliminating from life the elements which plague us, perhaps we need to question life more closely. Perhaps our refusal to face reality is the only ill we suffer from, and all the rest but illusion and delusion.
"The Way is not difficult; but you must avoid choosing!" Or, as another ancient one put it — "The Way is near, but men seek it afar. It is in easy things, but men seek it in difficult things."
— Henry Miller, Stand Still Like the Hummingbird, "Open Sesame!"
did you intend this, the red of the rooster in remove to the red of the flower in foreground? is this the balance we too often don't notice? the physical world offers evidence all of the time in disparate elements. how casual it is in its wisdom!
ReplyDeleteyes, we idealize, don't we? instead what are we to do? very early in james and i i remember a conversation that had something to do with not healing the world, but maintaining balance. perhaps if we work toward peace, there is and always will be someone on the other side with fists of violence. do we then give up as we'll never make any headway? what then would happen to the world? balance would be instantly distorted. we all must enact our truth along the scale.
in a neighbouring city the other day i watched people through my window just as i was driving into town. something about the density of populations - man can, i think, only maintain true and constant decency in small numbers or perhaps even only alone (or perhaps not even then). our energies clash, our egos, our bodies, when we are tightly together, and humanity becomes twisted. this is not to say that this is not natural. perhaps this is absolutely natural. i was amazed looking out my window, the hair on my arms standing up, mouthing the words, "this is an entirely different animal, this is an entirely different animal." true, it is a hard city, but even when it isn't, perhaps the violence is not as obvious is all.
if god is everything, or All, how and why do we reject those things on the other side of the scale that cause balance? i only consider the answers. i do not have them.
i go back time and time again to simone weil for solace, a space in which to breath. self effacement is the key. i was onto this so very long ago, ironically in my beginning, and how i fumble and stumble upon the very thing i should efface, but even in self there is a balance that must be struck. we have the glory of this being, us, i, to measure against the immeasurable whole.
how you get me going so early in the morning...:)
love))))
xo
erin
Erin, YES, I intended it, after accidentally snapping it. :)
DeleteWhat you've written here helps me see this balance more closely still. Thank you. I also follow you back to Simone Weil. I have not gotten deep enough into her words/spirit to find this inspiration. Maybe you can tell me where to start? Maybe you already have and I was not listening well enough.
ruth, i don't know that i could have heard simone weil without first destroying everything in my life and bearing the weight of it. isn't that a sad thing? but how grateful i am, not for my violence, but for my weak shoulders trying, trying)))))
ReplyDeletei love your retrospective intent:)
xo
erin