Blog 2329 – 03.10.2022

The Fear Of Intimacy

In one of my favorite books, The Shack, a man called Mackenzie, Mac for short, loses his young daughter tragically and is drawn back to the isolated cabin where she was brutally murdered by a note that portends to be from Papa, his wife’s name for God. Mac has serious Daddy issues from being beaten by his father as a child and so in the story Papa chooses to reveal himself/herself to Mac as a beautiful black woman, young dark haired handsome carpenter, and an attract ghostly lady gardener, and later after his daddy issues are resolved a Native American male.

One of my favorite lines in the story is where Mama/Papa God is explaining the Trinity to Mac and she says, “Love was always meant to be in relationship.” Most men you might observe have more difficulty with relationships than women. But women too have difficulty with relationships. We all struggle in one way or another with intimacy issues. That difficulty stems from misunderstandings and strained and often unfulfilled relationships with parents as children with the hits and mostly misses continuing all throughout our lives.

I can hear the warning about the dangers of discussing the subjects of sex, politics, and religion. Well like one who does not fear to go where angels fear to tread I have written often about religion and politics so I will put my toes or my big nose in the water here as well.

It is the fear of intimacy and at the same time the seduction of it’s siren call that makes us all act insane from time to time. Most of us want desperately to feel the warmth, the passion, and the comfort of another who wants us as much as we want them. I have often thought that at any given moment around the globe passionate and intimate moments are taking place enough to keep this old globe spinning and being repopulated. Sexual intimacy serves a far greater purpose that repopulating the earth, important as that is, intimacy is the biggest and best reason for being alive. For as Papa so astutely put it, “Love was always meant to be in relationship.”

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dQkNhFAp2MntoB7P90CAjHEEEm3KIfB3/view?usp=drivesdk

In This Life