Humbled by Mystery

Friends,

The title of an otherwise forgotten movie, What’s it all about, Alfie? has also become a by-line when our lives get confusing. What IS it all about, Alfie? I remember a bumper sticker of years ago that simply asked “What if the ‘Hokey Pokey’ IS what it’s all about?"

These are confusing times, to say the obvious. When I eliminate those foundational pillars of sanity - reason, science and law, for example - I find myself humbled by the mystery of it all. What does all this disturbance mean? Life already has eternal questions that will continue to be a mystery: death and an afterlife, miracles, the origin of the powerful life force that energizes and maintains planetary stability. Perhaps these questions aren’t worth asking  because we simply can’t know, even with the vaunted intelligence of AI!

We just live in a time when the political and cosmic mysteries of life will always humble us.

So I’m learning to accept the limitations of my knowledge and even imagination. But then I also ask, in spite of all the chaos and confusion, what is my responsibility to stay present to it all? And beyond It all? I can begin my response by the simplest of advice: I just need to stay loving, kind, and present to the life-giving opportunities before me now and try to resist the injustice and evil that robs me of the fulfillment of life. Can I avoid despair, cynicism and a temptation to withdraw from the swirl of life itself? Can I instead just try “to walk cheerfully over the earth,” as the Quakers advise, and accept my common plight with the rest of my planetary family?

Another prevalent response to how I am to try to live into the mystery is to ask: What can I do? Could I be more active politically? Could I make it my daily intention to bring encouragement, gratitude, and joy into the world, especially modeling this attitude for the children? How am I to establish a basis of resiliency and purpose in my own personal life in order to be of support for others?

Ultimately, though, I am just trying to live humbly into the grand mystery of the dissolution of my privileged expectations of security and well-being that I have most blithely assumed most of my life. I don’t quite know what to call this attitude? Is it a statement of faith that the mystery is beyond me, and I just need to trust some providential resolution and accountability? 

These are big thoughts and bigger questions. Whether or not we choose to ponder the mysteries they are the reality of our lives at this time - and perhaps eternally. We need to understand, though, that we will not find definitive answers. We will likely ultimately conclude, with all due humility, the best we can take out of life now is for us to learn to love with as much trust and faith as we can within in our minds and souls. We need to create an alternative bedrock of humane values based on honoring the God-given dignity in service to our immediate community and on out to those marginalized .

Peace,
Tom