Sabbath Messages > Sabbath Message: May 27, 2006
Good Sabbath
May 27 , 2006
Chaos is the unpredictable occurring too often; it is the collision of modernity and tradition, where change is resisted and feared, yet unpostponable! What we don't know we fear, for ignorance is mistaken for sophistication.
O Lord, now is not the time for inattention, no matter how busy You are.
The globe is Rice Krispies as it snaps, crackles and pops with foolishness and greed
A very uncivil war takes shape
Between those who fear modernity
And those who fear democracy
And of course, those who fear everything.
Religion has now evolved into comic books in the name of holiness, which either raises a new art form or dumbs down an already very foolish society. But we are a visual society that likes simplicity as we cause the simplicity of loving God to be obtuse and complicated. We believe that the "word of God" is implicit and direct and literal, though massaged by thousands of hands and minds over the centuries. Thus "truth" becomes bastardized by those who pretend to know what happened whether it did or did not.
We have holy men teach hatred of others while faking golden rules. Each religion begins with warfare upon infidels under a flag of a god of peace. There is no common sense or search for truth and laws do not promote justice anymore than they induce togetherness.
I lived through the worse times of Nazis and slaughter which induced not an ounce of justice or discovery of love thy neighbor, while they induced the invention of our Memorial Days, marked by tens of millions of headstones.
I've shared Diane Ackerman with you before. Her "An Alchemy of Mind" is that rare book of thoughts that propel one into another world of comprehension and awe. When I finished this book last November I wrote the following: "This lady writes like Sinatra sang-in his youth-before arrogance captured his voice."
"She is a scientist with a poet's meter, a lover of all that can be felt. Her words come in soft snowflake-like beauty nurturing my senses; my feelings are nourished by each colorful expression. She is enchanting in her brilliance."
The mind's eye is Cyclops joined with a fly that has too many eyes for its own comfort. When you can see behind you, there is no rest, only constant alertness. When we fear the unknown, should we also fear the known, and what about the "about-to-be-known", with all of the mystery of the future tense?
Science fiction is to imagine the unknown. Too many times it is a monster in deformity. Yet the Elephant Man was not imagined; his deformity was ugly and frightening, something like truth itself, where science is the Siamese Twin of fiction.
Yet truth is necessary; it is the oxygen upon which all life is supported. It is the infrastructure of all society and culture, yet it appears in many forms-too many! "It is the foundation of all knowledge and the cement of all societies." (Dryden) Why then is it so obtuse and invisible? Do we purposely make it so that religion can prosper, for religion is never literal-only interpreted-- though too often merely memorized.
My Dad taught me how to read and write. He caused me to love geography and history. He made knowledge into a fairy tale and never was God subtracted from his lessons. He believed in God with all his heart and soul.
It reminds me of the new geography Bee, promoted by National Geographic Magazine, where you learn what the Earth is and how each name is related to another place, rather than memorizing the spelling of words in that other Bee. Apparently, our generation of youngsters is so bereft of geographic orientation that it can't find Iraq nor New York State and God knows what else.
I've always walked through my imagination to discover other worlds and possibilities. As Diane Ackerman describes both herself and myself: "although my passion is for words, I also love playing with ideas, looking at everything from as many sides as possible, lifting up an observation and shaking it to see if revelation might fall out."
Today, use your imagination and shake out the truths that are partially hidden from sight, for they are there, gems to be caressed and loved, along with life itself.
sandy
