Blog 430 – 10.10.2016

How do we know anything on anyone really? I had a friend lately who did not agree with something I posted on Social Media and on my blog and so she commented to someone who did agree with at least one of my points, “Well, you would not say that if you knew him as well as I do.” I commented back to her that perhaps she did not know me as well as she thought she did.” Earlier in the spring I had two long time friends get very upset with me over an opinion I had expressed. Railing against my remark they went on to accuse me of some terrible act for which they thought I should be imprisoned. They never said what I supposedly did but I have done more than one thing I am not proud of so I let that go. What hurt me most of all is that I thought they knew me. I thought they loved me. I guess not. I still love them and hope someday the difference of opinion between us can be bridged.

Most of us like to think we have pretty good judgement, that we perceive reality very well. But I think the whole problem with judgement and perception is that we can get it so wrong and yet think we are so right. Take our criminal justice system, the statue of Lady Justice is blindfolded to show that she is impartial but the reality is that judges and juries are not impartial nor are prosecutors, defense lawyers or the rest of us. We make incorrect judgments all the time. More than one person has been put to death being accused falsely and convicted. We kill reputations and people daily with our judgments which are at best mere guesses based on circumstantial evidence and at worst a hateful kind of vengeance against a brother or sister for crimes we are equally guilty of if not in practice in our hearts.

But how to do we really know anything or anyone? Not logically for sure nor scientifically. Science would destroy the flower, picking it a part, to examine it thinking thereby to know it. But flowers, things, people are more than the sum of their parts. Want to try logic? Try this, “To know someone is to love them” therefore to love someone is to know them. Therefore to know anything or anyone you must love them. Crazy as that may sound to you I think the only way we can know anyone or anything truly is to love them or it. We must suspend judgement entirely and accept the person or thing just as they are, not how we wish they would be or could be. In order to be open to the marvelous creation before us. The Creator,  the Author, the Universe ( Did you really think you just poof happened or that you created, or authored yourself?) made everything not just man in His image and it is altogether lovely and lovable. The only way we can know anything is through the eyes of love.

Someone who thinks or sees things differently from us seems inexplicable,  beyond our understanding, and how can we accept what we cannot understand or handle it. Women are much more a mystery to men than men are to women. I think a few lines from the musical and movie Camelot explain why. King Arthur is trying to figure out how to handle his new wife and sings, “How to handle a woman, mark me there’s a way said the wise old man. There’s a way known to every woman since the whole rig-a-ma-role began…The way to handle a woman is to love her, love her, love her.” Women seem to grasp that about men and a lot of other things easier than men do. The way to truly know or handle anyone or thing is to love, love, love. Anything less is some kind of judgement and more likely than not to be incorrect. So let love have its perfect way in and through you and you will be the wiser for it.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
And sometimes wise old man,
David White