This is the objective of our search for truth. "Reconcile" is the perfect word, as it means the re-joining of things that were once together but are now apart, a view that many of us take regarding faith and reason.
Search for the word "Seeking" in the lefthand column's search bar, if you'd like to go right to the posts that have to do with this seeking of truth and self. Here are a few of the most visited or personal favorites:
Seven days in a row, no work, just the family and some friends at a beach house in Florida.
Got to Day 5 or 6 before reading a single word of any of the reading material that I brought.
Other than plugging in the laptop with a wireless internet connection on the afternoon of our arrival, for the purpose of finding a map of the town we were in, and then checking a personal email account in the middle of the week for about 2 minutes, the computer was never turned on.
What did we do for seven days?
Created. Sand castles, a 2000 piece jigsaw puzzle, pottery glazing. And biked. And swam. And ate and drank.
That's it. No information absorption of any kind, for an entire week. And that was the best week I can recall in a long, long time. Then I thought back to other "best times I've had in a long time," and not a single one involved access to news, internet, or contact with the world that existed outside of my immediate surroundings and the people I was with. Why is that?
I believe it's because there is a happiness continuum for most humans:
Many people are unhappy in their jobs, or even their lives, and I wonder if the solution is as simple as spending more time on activities that are higher up on that happiness continuum. Of course, that would mean spending less time on the activities that fall lower in the continuum (the term "hierarchy" is being consciously avoided, as hierarchies tend to represent things that build on one other, such that the lower items in the hierarchy are required in order to achieve the higher items; that is clearly not the case here, since people are able to engage at any point in the continuum without having participated in activities at other points).
But that opportunity cost isn't really much of a cost at all - in fact, it's yet another benefit to spending more time in the fun part of life. Who has time for sadness, boredom, loneliness and depression, when more and more of their time is spent busily creating, doing, learning, and interacting with others? Once a certain point is passed, once the pie has its biggest slice taken up by happiness and its smallest slice taken up by suckiness, the crappy parts are more easily endured due to the fact that our minds can deal with temporary and short-lived adversity far more effectively when it knows that it is just a drop in the ocean when compared to the happiness of engagement that is the norm.
Now, it's almost time for yet another engaging, happiness-inducing activity - as soon as I suffer through a short-term, life-force-draining activity that ranks REALLY low on my personal happiness continuum.
"Do, or do not.
There is no try."
- Yoda
Establishing Christianity throughout the Empire, then the world. Ending slavery in America. So many deaths and years in the pursuits of these objectives before they were eventually accomplished. What would the Jedi Master have ruled? Didn't they merely "try," rather than "do?" And consequently, wouldn't he have been disappointed and unimpressed? No, and no. Doing, as opposed to trying, is committing to something completely, with the mindset of "failure is not an option." Doing is more than taking a shot, seeing what happens, keeping your fingers crossed; it is taking the field knowing that victory is assured, even if your own death occurs before that ultimate victory is realized. It is saying that this thing is larger than I am; I am doing my part in the pursuit of the larger goal.
Lincoln and freedom DID win, even though people did die; Jesus won, though countless martyrs perished and continue to perish along with Him. These people did, they did not try.
Searching for and finding Truth, regardless of belief, is something that I believe all people are here to do. Helping people do this is very important to me, though I haven't made much progress. When I die, if there is still great hostility and war based on religious as well as non-religious beliefs (I'll grudgingly concede that possibility...), will God look at my life as a failure? Will He say, "Tom, you tried but did not"? Or will He say "you did"? I'm doing and will continue to do the things in this life that will hopefully leave Him no choice other than the acknowledgment of my doing, starting with myself and sharing as much as I can with others. Even if it's still not completely done.
Upon closer inspection, the hawk was not just standing in the yard. Hawks don't do that. As the car moved closer, its enormous wings spread apart and the beautiful animal took flight; in its talons, a freshly killed and partially eaten squirrel. The hawk had no choice in the matter of whether or not to kill the squirrel. Its body needed food, its eyes searched the ground below for small animals, and the squirrel became fuel for the extension of the bird's living existence.
Animals, whether wild or domesticated, behave in expected ways in given circumstances. They have no free will and must respond to certain situations in predefined patterns. We don't always know what those responses will be, since we don't always have all of the facts about an animal's present state, but animals do not "plan" or "decide" how their existences should proceed, or what impacts their actions will have on others. Their animal instincts take over and direct their actions.
Many people also refuse or otherwise fail to consider how their decisions will affect the lives of other people and proceed accordingly, based solely on their individual wants and needs. When this takes place, the person in question is reducing itself to the state of the animals, rather than realizing its full potential as a human being created in the image of God.
People every day, all over the world, make difficult choices and engage in unpleasant activities for the sake of others, whether those others are specific individuals or just society in general. These people bring themselves closer to God, Jesus, Allah, or their own inner peace with their actions, and they drive themselves further away from that higher power when they choose to pursue selfish objectives at the known expense of others.
One of the "new" things that Jesus brought to the world was to love instead of hate one's enemy, for it is easy to hate one's enemy; does not even the common godless criminal or brute love his neighbor and hate his enemy? I will try to pray for and love the enemies of God and man, the ones who knowingly and remorselessly hurt others in pursuit of their own ends, hopeful that they will change for the better, with the strong faith that as long as we trust in God and do the right things for the right reasons, everything will be just as it is intended to be.
Schools don't teach some of the most important things. Maybe there's not enough time in the school day, but to that I would say "make the school day longer." Specifically, I'm talking about the Latin and Greek foundations of Western civilization. Why don't we have the grand, humanity-altering ideas that we used to? Well, we do, actually; it's just that the people who have them aren't in position to realize their enactments.
Roman youths were well-schooled not only in Latin, but also in Greek grammar and culture. Hellenistic culture was the basis of much of what became Rome as we know it. These Greek and Latin foundations were lost during the "Dark Ages" (hence, the Dark Ages) after barbarians burned every church and public building they could find, which is where almost all of these documents were housed, but a few surviving stores of manuscripts were gradually rediscovered and translated by Islamic scholars into their Arabic language. During that period, the world saw a "flowering of Middle Eastern culture" - which was actually a rebirth of classical Greek and Roman knowledge and philosophy. Once this spread from the intellectual and cultural centers of Islam to Europe, largely through the Muslim conquest of Spain, Europe quickly awoke from its dark period and the rest, as they say, is history. The Dar al-Islam ("House of Islam," i.e. the Islamic world) subsequently fell back away from its classical flowering and into its own focus and reliance on the words of the Koran and its earliest commentaries known as the Hadith; with that culture too, it can also be said that the rest is history.
By the time of the British Empire and the New World, all well-heeled young boys were infused with sound classical educations. The political and social ideas of Greece and Rome were tossed and turned and debated and even experimented with, culminating in the largest-scale experiment of all, America. And over 230 years later, the experiment is still working. It's working more effectively than any government and society in the history of humanity, and no wonder: the inventors of this system had centuries worth of foundation to develop from, without having to reinvent any wheels or go through trial and error. There was, and is, nothing new under the sun.
How many children do you know that are being exposed to any sort of education in the classics? 5? 1? 0? If they're in public elementary schools in America, the number is probably pretty close to 0. Don't leave it to the schools; take it upon yourself. Almost any sentence you use will have at least one word with a Greek or Latin root. Take a second to point these out to your kids whenever you think of it. Last night while washing dishes, my 7-year old 2nd grader asked my wife which definition was for "homonym" and which was for "homophone." My wife wasn't 100% sure, so I went through the Latin root thing with my son: "homo" means "same," "nym" means "name," "phone" means "sound," like you hear people on the phone. So which definition goes with homonym, and which with homophone? He immediately got it, then hit me with a followup out of the vast, well-lit recesses of his brain: "dad, what does 'sapien' mean?"
Which led to a whole new, extremely short conversation, since I had no idea what "sapien" meant - but can you imagine where we might be if we all spent time on the classics? It's the foundation of all of our political idealogy, all of our scientific and legal nomenclature, all of our daily spoken and written vocabulary, the very ability to express through words the highly nuanced thoughts and feelings that we are experiencing on a constant basis. Not to mention the history lessons that we wouldn't have to continually learn by doing, rather than by reading about. As Thomas F. Madden convincingly details in his book Empires of Trust, the Romans solved the vexing problem of religious terrorism in the Middle East almost 2,000 years ago; who among us, or among the world's political leaders, learned and knows what that solution was? Thomas Madden does, I do, everyone who read his book does, as does everyone who's had a solid education in the classics. Those are lessons worth learning about in text books, rather than figuring them out on the battlefield and in crowded cities.
On May 9, in the Arab country of Jordan, Pope Benedict XVI delivered the following remarks.
His papacy has been formed by his deeply held conviction in the power of faith, reason, and truth, each serving to strengthen the other. This speech illustrates the rationale behind those beliefs perfectly.
Text of Pope Benedict XVI's Speech to Muslim Leaders, Diplomatic Corps and the Rectors of Jordan's Universities
Your Royal Highness,
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
It
is a source of great joy for me to meet with you this morning in this
magnificent setting. I wish to thank Prince Ghazi Bin Muhammed Bin
Talal for his kind words of welcome. Your Royal Highness’s numerous
initiatives to promote inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue and
exchanges are appreciated by the people of the Hashemite Kingdom and
they are widely respected by the international community. I know that
these efforts receive the active support of other members of the Royal
Family as well as the nation’s government, and find ample resonance in
the many initiatives of collaboration among Jordanians. For all this, I
wish to express my own heartfelt admiration.
Places of worship,
like this splendid Al-Hussein Bin Talal mosque named after the revered
late King, stand out like jewels across the earth’s surface. From the
ancient to the modern, the magnificent to the humble, they all point to
the divine, to the Transcendent One, to the Almighty. And through the
centuries these sanctuaries have drawn men and women into their sacred
space to pause, to pray, to acknowledge the presence of the Almighty,
and to recognize that we are all his creatures.
For this reason we
cannot fail to be concerned that today, with increasing insistency,
some maintain that religion fails in its claim to be, by nature, a
builder of unity and harmony, an expression of communion between
persons and with God. Indeed some assert that religion is necessarily a
cause of division in our world; and so they argue that the less
attention given to religion in the public sphere the better. Certainly,
the contradiction of tensions and divisions between the followers of
different religious traditions, sadly, cannot be denied. However, is it
not also the case that often it is the ideological manipulation of
religion, sometimes for political ends, that is the real catalyst for
tension and division, and at times even violence in society? In the
face of this situation, where the opponents of religion seek not simply
to silence its voice but to replace it with their own, the need for
believers to be true to their principles and beliefs is felt all the
more keenly. Muslims and Christians, precisely because of the burden of
our common history so often marked by misunderstanding, must today
strive to be known and recognized as worshippers of God faithful to
prayer, eager to uphold and live by the Almighty’s decrees, merciful
and compassionate, consistent in bearing witness to all that is true
and good, and ever mindful of the common origin and dignity of all
human persons, who remain at the apex of God’s creative design for the
world and for history.
The resolve of Jordanian educators and
religious and civic leaders to ensure that the public face of religion
reflects its true nature is praiseworthy. The example of individuals
and communities, together with the provision of courses and programmes,
manifest the constructive contribution of religion to the educational,
cultural, social and other charitable sectors of your civic society.
Some of this spirit I have been able to sample at first hand.
Yesterday, I experienced the renowned educational and rehabilitation
work of the Our Lady of Peace Centre where Christians and Muslims are
transforming the lives of entire families, by assisting them to ensure
that their disabled children take up their rightful place in society.
Earlier this morning, I blessed the foundation stone of Madaba
University where young Muslim and Christian adults will side by side
receive the benefits of a tertiary education, enabling them to
contribute justly to the social and economic development of their
nation. Of great merit too are the numerous initiatives of
inter-religious dialogue supported by the Royal Family and the
diplomatic community and sometimes undertaken in conjunction with the
Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue. These include the
ongoing work of the Royal Institutes for Inter-faith studies and for
Islamic Thought, the Amman Message of 2004, the Amman Interfaith
Message of 2005, and the more recent Common Word letter which echoed a
theme consonant with my first encyclical: the unbreakable bond between
love of God and love of neighbour, and the fundamental contradiction of
resorting to violence or exclusion in the name of God (cf. Deus Caritas
Est, 16).
Such initiatives clearly lead to greater reciprocal
knowledge, and they foster a growing respect both for what we hold in
common and for what we understand differently. Thus, they should prompt
Christians and Muslims to probe even more deeply the essential
relationship between God and his world so that together we may strive
to ensure that society resonates in harmony with the divine order. In
this regard, the co-operation found here in Jordan sets an encouraging
and persuasive example for the region, and indeed the world, of the
positive, creative contribution which religion can and must make to
civic society.
Distinguished friends, today I wish to refer to a
task which I have addressed on a number of occasions and which I firmly
believe Christians and Muslims can embrace, particularly through our
respective contributions to learning and scholarship, and public
service. That task is the challenge to cultivate for the good, in the
context of faith and truth, the vast potential of human reason.
Christians in fact describe God, among other ways, as creative Reason,
which orders and guides the world. And God endows us with the capacity
to participate in his reason and thus to act in accordance with what is
good. Muslims worship God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, who has
spoken to humanity. And as believers in the one God we know that human
reason is itself God’s gift and that it soars to its highest plane when
suffused with the light of God’s truth. In fact, when human reason
humbly allows itself to be purified by faith, it is far from weakened;
rather, it is strengthened to resist presumption and to reach beyond
its own limitations. In this way, human reason is emboldened to pursue
its noble purpose of serving mankind, giving expression to our deepest
common aspirations and extending, rather than manipulating or
confining, public debate. Thus, genuine adherence to religion – far
from narrowing our minds – widens the horizon of human understanding.
It protects civil society from the excesses of the unbridled ego which
tend to absolutize the finite and eclipse the infinite; it ensures that
freedom is exercised hand in hand with truth, and it adorns culture
with insights concerning all that is true, good and beautiful.
This
understanding of reason, which continually draws the human mind beyond
itself in the quest for the Absolute, poses a challenge; it contains a
sense of both hope and caution. Together, Christians and Muslims are
impelled to seek all that is just and right. We are bound to step
beyond our particular interests and to encourage others, civil servants
and leaders in particular, to do likewise in order to embrace the
profound satisfaction of serving the common good, even at personal
cost. And we are reminded that because it is our common human dignity
which gives rise to universal human rights, they hold equally for every
man and woman, irrespective of his or her religious, social or ethnic
group. In this regard, we must note that the right of religious freedom
extends beyond the question of worship and includes the right –
especially of minorities – to fair access to the employment market and
other spheres of civic life.
Before I leave you this morning I would
like to acknowledge in a special way the presence among us of His
Beatitude Emmanuel III Delly, Patriarch of Baghdad, whom I greet most
warmly. His presence brings to mind the people of neighbouring Iraq
many of whom have found welcome refuge here in Jordan. The
international community’s efforts to promote peace and reconciliation,
together with those of the local leaders, must continue in order to
bear fruit in the lives of Iraqis. I wish to express my appreciation
for all those who are assisting in the endeavors to deepen trust and to
rebuild the institutions and infrastructure essential to the well-being
of that society. And once again, I urge diplomats and the international
community they represent together with local political and religious
leaders to do everything possible to ensure the ancient Christian
community of that noble land its fundamental right to peaceful
coexistence with their fellow citizens.
Distinguished friends, I
trust that the sentiments I have expressed today will leave us with
renewed hope for the future. Our love and duty before the Almighty is
expressed not only in our worship but also in our love and concern for
children and young people – your families – and for all Jordanians. It
is for them that you labor and it is they who motivate you to place the
good of every human person at the heart of institutions, laws and the
workings of society. May reason, ennobled and humbled by the grandeur
of God’s truth, continue to shape the life and institutions of this
nation, in order that families may flourish and that all may live in
peace, contributing to and drawing upon the culture that unifies this
great Kingdom!
The racism blog that I contribute to is scheduled to get some nice pub on Monday. If it happens, I'll provide a few more details on what will have transpired by then; in any case, please visit that site when you get a free minute or two! I don't think I've provided the link through this site before, so here it is:
http://insidefromtheinside.com/
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, it's a multi-author blog about racism, featuring 10-12 black, white, and Hispanic men and women posting on a weekly basis. Each author has an assigned day (mine's Friday) on which to post, although that can vary if something comes up or if the author just feels like posting more than once in a week.
Here's a copy-paste of the semi-informed post from last July:
July 21, 2008
I've finally "won" something: the opportunity to change the world via writing.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change
the world; indeed, that is the only thing that ever has." – Margaret Mead
The above quote is provided courtesy of the Wizard of Ads, a.k.a. Roy Williams. After reading his Monday Morning Memo that's been emailed to me for several years now, I'll finally get to meet the man himself this week at an intimate gathering of hand-picked writers down in Austin for 3 days. The topics are journalism and racism, and the costs of the course and room and board are provided by his Wizard Academy. It's modestly titled World Changers 2008.
This should be an extraordinary gathering of 2 instructors and about 12 writers who have all submitted writing samples, then been chosen from a pool of possibly millions (or maybe hundreds, or even tens) of applicants and who have agreed to write something on the topic of racism at least once a week for the next two years. I'm one of them (note that I said the gathering, not the writers, would be extraordinary - I'm about as humble about my writing as one could be, and cannot begin to convey how honored and privileged I feel every time I think about this), and I'll provide additional details on the venue where the writings will be featured once I have them!
For practice, I've authored a couple of blog entries dealing with racism that you may have already read here, filed under the Harmony category of Worthreading:
Don't Condone "Harmless" Racist Remarks
Your Personal Endorsement of Slavery
It's gonna be enlightening, it may get ugly, and hopefully, maybe, a vast swath of the world will actually somehow change for the better.
A prediction was made on Tax Day, April 15 of this year, by myself to some co-workers on the walk back from lunch, along the lines of "ya know, we're overdue for an earthquake or something, aren't we? Probably somewhere in Asia; it's been too long since a natural disaster like that, and they always seem to kill 10 or 20,000 people somewhere in Asia." April 17, an earthquake struck Afghanistan, but thankfully only a handful of people lost their lives (these Asian disasters tend to register loss of life in the thousands or tens of thousands, rather than merely the tens).
To me, we weren't out of the woods yet with that earthquake. I tend to look at massive loss of life in natural disasters as God's or nature's way of "thinning the herd." If the human population were to grow unchecked by tsunami, earthquake, flood, or disease, then the only regularly-occurring calamitous loss of life event left would be war, and wars just don't take very many lives these days. Hundreds of thousands, even millions, used to die every generation or two in armed conflict, but that doesn't happen anymore.
Which leads us to last week's swine flu scare. After dodging the Asian earthquake bullet and then seeing the first obscure headlines about a few people dying of an unknown flu virus in Mexico, it seemed fairly apparent that this was a pandemic unfolding exactly as the experts have been predicting for decades now, which is to say, a previously unknown killer quietly coming out of nowhere and making its deadly way through one of the largest cities on earth before anyone even knew about it. The only thing that has saved us thus far is that it just happened to not possess a very deadly genetic makeup. Of course, that could change with a mutation here or there, but the scientists tell us it does not appear likely to do so.
We may have dodged another bullet, but if you paid attention in any history class you ever took, you realize that vast, unforeseen loss of human life all at once is the rule, not the exception. Why do I bring up these awful thoughts? Here's why: if you truly understand, if you honestly believe, that it's a question of when and not if, then you would probably live your life differently than you do. Different choices would be made, and for different reasons. Maybe you could find some more joy in avoiding conflict and in smoothing things over and in helping anyone you're able to help, rather than trying always to best others at any cost. Perhaps you could try harder to make your corner of the world better, not worse. I don't know. The other night after my late-night Wal-Mart grocery trip, I went up to my car to unload my groceries into the trunk. A lady came up to me, and I saw her coming a mile away, hoping she wouldn't ask for "help," because I know I almost never give parking lot wanderers any money and always feel guilty, greedy, bad. But she did, and for some reason I pulled out my wallet to give her a dollar (I had no change in my pocket). All I had were 20's. And for some reason, I gave her a 20. She was very thankful, blessed me, and wandered off while I unloaded my groceries. When I drove out of the parking lot I saw her hitting up someone else unloading theirs.
There's not a moral to the story, a lesson to be learned, a life that was somehow changed for the better or worse because of a good or stupid deed. It's just life. Life should be about helping people you're able to help, even if they're not family, even if you don't know them at all. I do know that as hard as I try, I still find myself feeling like a complete ass way too often while thinking about arguing with someone or being selfish or less helpful than I could should have been, so there's infinite room for improvement for me. How about you?
Listening to an audiobook biography of Christian Dior [don't ask], its appeal is far greater as a biography of life in France during the 1st half of the 20th century than as that of just one man from boyhood to the pinnacle of all that life has to offer. If you have any interest in Paris, Normandy, or the south of France; high society or common life; turn of the century, roaring 20's, wartime or peace; working for the Man or starting your own business; or anything to do with any of the arts, it's a fascinating and well-written book.
The thing that I wish we would do as everyday people in all walks of life, which the elites as well as the artists did long ago and presumably still do, is get together on a regular basis at someone's home or other meeting place to cut loose together, to talk, to express their grand ideas and hopes and dreams, to rail against the negatives while taking things further and actually making plans to change the world. For some, this conjures the idea of "happy hour" or "poker night" or "GNO," but I'm obviously thinking of something a little different here. Maybe less drunken rambling, more clarity of thinking and expression; less gossip, more conceptualizing and idea-spawning; less hunting and sports, more philosophy and culture; less bitching, more world changing. I don't know. Just a thought that it would have been cool to have taken part in that type of in-person idea exchange, and that it still would be!
The less destructive it is, the harder it is to give up. If you gamble and bring financial ruin upon yourself, then it's obvious to you and to everyone you know that you need to stop. If you fly into drunken rages or endanger people's lives when you drink, then clearly you have a problem recognized by many others.
Sometimes the vice is not so evil or wrong though. Maybe it has caused you to miss out on something, or to act in a regrettable way, once or twice or several times over a period of years. Maybe your most trusted loved ones and confidantes actually counsel you that you don't have an issue, as far as they can tell. But deep down, it Is an issue for you.
That's a tough thing to give up. But it may be even more meaningful to do so than one of the blindingly awful behaviors outlined above, since the only ones holding you accountable are yourself and God. Oh, and since you may not be the sternest disciplinarian when it comes to yourself and your habits, you really do need to bring God into this conversation. It makes all the difference!
If you want to strengthen your relationship with God and with yourself, try giving up something that other people really don't think that it's absolutely necessary for you to give up; try giving up something that, in fact, would be a bit baffling to your friends if they knew of your decision. You can get a tiny sense of what that's like during Lent if you're Catholic, but to tell your Father that you're done, forever, with that thing, and to know that you are, has the potential to transform your life in ways that would never have occurred to you when you initially worked through the decision process.
Seriously, I couldn't make this up! You long-time readers know that I like to check in with other news outlets from around the world to get fresh perspectives, knowing that the Jerusalem Post or Russia's Pravda or even the Financial Times is going to have different top stories than CNN or any U.S. newspaper. But just now, I was shocked by this story right on the front page of Pravda's English language site. Here's the opening paragraph:
Bad news for me personally, as well. Dallas never seemed to me to be as much of a high-value target as the Northeast, D.C., the West Coast, Chicago, or NORAD; now, however, we've apparently made the top 5 list:
"Inga Foksha, an analyst with IK Aton, did not hesitate to name five targets, the destruction of which would jeopardize the USA’s existence.
The first strike should be made against the offices of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in Washington, Dallas and Chicago. 'This company handles depositors’ funds. If it disappears, and if banks have no guarantees, the people will panic and will rush to cash their deposits,' Foksha said."
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