Blog 411 – 09.21.2016

As we journey through this life many people think the most important thing is to have a destination or a goal in mind. I, on the other hand, think that having fun and a purpose are more important. I have tried the destination and goal route and found it boring and not much fun. But finding a purpose and trying to serve that purpose while trying to have a little fun has been much more enjoyable. Some people’s goal is to live long enough to see there children grown and supporting themselves. And as noble as that might seem what do they do if they live longer? Much of the discontent and unhappiness people experience in life is from what I call short range goal overshoot. If you make anyone else including your children your reason for living what do you do if you out live them or they outlive their dependence on you. It is as big a mistake to find your reason for living outside yourself as it is to look for the answers to the important questions of life outside yourself.

Although I do think we can see certain aspects of ourselves mirrored in our children, our family, our friends, our lovers, and even our enemies such a picture is derivative and incomplete. To know yourself you must spend time alone with yourself. Quiet time alone with our own thoughts scares most of us and we go to great lengths to fill our lives with work, and noise to drown out that voice that is our own. We repeat phrases, and platitudes over and over as if these were our own opinions and thoughts instead of just something that we read that someone else wrote or heard that someone else said. What do you think?

Anything that I or any one else says or writes is only of any value to you if it enlightens your thinking, your opinion. Some people think I do not believe in absolute truth. That just is not true. I do not believe that anyone has a corner on the truth or that many of the things purporting to be absolute truth have even been thought out well by those who profess them. But I believe that each and everyone of us has a direct line to absolute truth. In fact I think that if we knew the absolute truth about who we are that much of the misunderstanding and misinformation in our world would just disappear.

We are on a journey. It is a journey of self discovery. How much do you really know about yourself? I have often heard it lamented that people live for years next to someone and do not get to know their neighbors. But how much do you know about the one person you ought to know better than anyone else? The old quote is: “To know someone is to love them.” I think the opposite more true. We do not even begin to know someone till we love them. Do you love yourself? Have you been all around the world but never been to you? We are commanded to love God and our neighbors as we love ourselves. I think to love one is to love all and of the three I think the one we have the most trouble loving is our self. Any trouble we have loving God or others is really a trouble we have in loving ourselves. Judgement and condemnation are our own creations not God’s. For that reason the expression, “God damn you to hell.” Is in my mind one of the most nonsensical expressions in English. The very idea that Love could or would damn anyone is just stupid and to believe that Love could or would create a lake of fire to torture his misbehaving children in for all eternity is craziness.

So what is this journey all about and why is it taking so long? Well, Pilgrim, listen and listen tight, to borrow a John Wayne expression, the journey is the journey Home. The reason it is seemingly taking so long, remember time too is our invention or creation, is that we all must go home together. These learning loops or dreams we call lives are just that. Like Dorothy of Kansas when we figure it out for ourselves, and we can take as long as we like, we will awake from this dream Home safe and sound. So by all means enjoy the journey and spoiler alert there maybe a scarecrow, a tin man, a lion around the next bend or some other friend to help you along the way.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White