What does it all mean?

There are so many things, events, happenings that confound us all. Life itself is a mystery. And then of course, what is called the “hard problem” – consciousness itself. How can it be that we humans can be aware of our own existence? And what does it mean – to exist?

It may be said that at any one time (depending on the situation) each of us has three persona: the person we think we are; the person others think we are; and the person we really are. And they are not all the same!!

So who are we? Should we bother with worldly matters before we know who (or what) we are - what we really are – in our inner most being? What is more important? Determining who we are or what we do in the world?

Trying to understand this leads easily to the famous command, “Know Thyself”, that is carved into stone over the entrance to the Temple at Delphi in Greece – the famous “Oracle of Delphi”.

No matter what scientists claim it is my strong belief that love, wisdom, courage, friendship, intuition and the appreciation of beauty, cannot be just the result of evolutionary chance and brain chemistry alone. I mean how can a cell – even a brain cell – think? Is a cell intelligent? With the various brain imaging and scanning techniques now available it can be seen that certain areas of the brain are activated when thinking or remembering something, but it has yet to be determined HOW this occurs and whether thoughts or remembrances, by some means, activate the neurons or whether the activated neurons, somehow, create the thoughts and remembrances. These questions remain unanswered.

 

I wonder if this quote from Shakespeare’s The Tempest (Act IV, sc.1) says it all:

Prospero: …    Our revels now are ended. These our actors,

                        As I foretold you, were all spirits and

                        Are melted into air, into thin air:

                        And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,

                        The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,

                        The solemn temples, the great globe itself,

                        Yea, all which we inherit, shall dissolve

                        And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,

                        Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

                        As dreams are made on, and our little life
                        Is rounded with a sleep….

Sixty-four.

Sixty-four.  Had she lived that’s how old Magucha would have been today - May 9.

I am not sure how others do it, but I find that coping with what Life (with a capital L) throws at me to be a continual rather ad hoc arrangement. Everyday, every moment, is different.

What I am doing is coping in my way with my grief. I know that I could wallow in a “poor me” trough – but I realize that such an attitude would not do me any good. But grief is not just “grief” – some amorphous “thing” out there somewhere. It is personal.

My way of coping is to try and “meet” my grief head on and attempt to understand the how and why. I mean the woman I loved, my wife, my best friend Magucha, is dead – has “passed away”. I can’t change that fact. I can’t deny it. To try to ignore it; to try and hide it; to try and divert my attention from this fact just doesn’t work. Not for me anyway.

But it is very hard. I look at some of the many reminders of her that are in the house we shared and I can remember the time and place, when and where the photos were taken, or the items purchased, or when the gifts were received or given; I sit down at a café and I immediately recall the table we sat at and what we ate when we were last there together.

It is of course a fact that we all suffer grief at some time in our lives. People have died of old age, illness, in battle, on expeditions and in various other tragic or violent means since humans first walked the earth – grief is always with us.

Being the person I am and as a human being, as a husband and father, I have a strong desire to know, to try and understand.  I am deeply curious but it is all made harder because I suspect that I will never understand what happens at the end. I am not alone in this and why I think that from the earliest times humans have had a belief (hope?) that there is a hereafter of some sort. But are we ever supposed to know?  

In my case my grief is compounded by the mystery of it all. I just have to accept it! But what has happened to the “person” – not the body - but the essence that was Magucha? I find it incomprehensible that her love, her intelligence, her vitality, her emotional strength and empathy have just disappeared into nothing. After all it has yet to be determined what Life actually is (that “something” that makes any living thing, “alive”) – it may be beyond our knowing.

But why is there something rather than nothing? And why us?

As always in moments of high emotion I find solace in poetry.

Shakespeare expressed this mystery in his timeless verse:

“The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn

            No traveller returns, puzzles the will.”

Rabindranath Tagore, in a more accepting mood, also wrote:

“Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.”

And Shelley, long before Tagore, obviously had similar views when he wrote:

“Peace! Peace! He is not dead, he doth not sleep, -

He hath awakened from the dream of life;”

    Even though only 62 when she died, she lived her life to the full and Magucha, to quote Kipling:

   “Filled the unforgiving minute 

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run.”

She did this every day and was glad.

It comforts me to believe that Magucha no longer suffers, that she has gone before me, gone on ahead, and that some time in the future we will meet again. That love will always win in the end.

I hope. Maybe - but who knows? I still have my memories.

War is sweet to those that know it not.

I always thought that this old saying was of Roman origin but apparently it is from ancient Greece - from the Greek poet Pindar (518BC – 438BC), to be exact. I have no knowledge of the Greek language but have a fragmentary knowledge of Latin and Pindar’s original Greek is the origin of the Latin proverb "Dulce bellum inexpertis" which is translated (more or less) as, “War is sweet to those that know it not”.

The continuation of what Pindar wrote is; “but the experienced man trembles exceedingly at heart on its approach.”

I believe that this proverb is as true today as it was 2500 years ago.

In the name of God, why start a war? Why?

It is my firm belief that human ego and pride are the reasons. These two give rise to the widespread misconception of “us” and “them”. Us being always better, more intelligent and culturally advanced than them and that “our” God is better than “their” God. Therefore it matters not how we treat such inferior beings – God is on “our” side!

It takes two to tango – as the old saying goes. It stands to reason that differences of opinion will arise (humans being the fickle creatures they are) therefore it will always be necessary for there to be (to use a Churchillian phrase) more “jaw, jaw” and less “war, war”. And “jaw, jaw” is always less costly in human life and material than “war, war” – always.

The current standoff between the USA and North Korea will not end without some serious negotiations and plenty of “jaw, jaw”. A conflict is unthinkable and should not be considered. Conflicts always, repeat always, leave a host of unintended consequences to contend with afterwards. Imagine what would happen to the about 25 million North Koreans if the regime was defeated in a conflict – who would govern the country? Who would police them and restore law and order (very different from what they had known before)? What would happen to the millions of refugees who would try to flee the conflict? Who would feed and care for them? Who would finance and help rebuild the country? Would South Korea have the means or the inclination to reintegrate a heavily indoctrinated populace into a new order of events (for North Koreans) and thereby increasing the South's population by about 50%? Would China? Would the USA?

Remember it took about eight years (or so I believe) to reintegrate East Germany into the now unified Germany.

While I am certainly no expert on North Korea I have a strong suspicion that the current leader may adopt the end idealized by Hitler and invoke the “Gotterdammerung” approach, “If my Kim family cannot rule the country anymore then no one will” – kind of thing. Remember North Korea is a nuclear country and they have the will and the means to lay waste to the entire country.

 This sort of thing is not to be contemplated – ever.

Totally alone.

Now that I have experienced “aloneness” for the 14 months since my wife died I have a deeper understanding of the devastating effects that losing one’s home, possessions, country, and for children, their caregivers, must have.

When I read, see and listen about the human tragedy that is unfolding in the Middle East and North and East Africa I have some difficulty in comprehending the enormity of the devastation and the inhumanity of it all.

My imagination fails me when I try to put myself in the place of a child (particularly a girl) lost with no one to turn to for the normal care that would be expected. Having to scavenge for food, shelter, clothing and for just the basic necessities to live, must be absolutely traumatic. 

Add to all this the dawning realization the child must accept and the gnawing fear experienced, that there is no “family” to provide that most basic of human needs, nurture – Love.

To be in such a situation is almost incomprehensible. Not to have the emotional support or nurture that is so necessary for any child’s development is beyond belief. Not to ever get a hug or a kiss.

The long term effects will be etched on the child’s psyche and affect how they react to others and the World in general for the rest of their life – where ever that happens to be.

And we – the people of this world  - are the cause. Why? A “belief” that I am better than you? A belief that my “God” is better than your “God”?  A belief that money is the only important thing?

While I, as a mature adult, have my adult children to support (for their loss of a mother) they in turn support me. This is as it should be. We are, as human beings, social animals and are “wired” to support each other.

As the English poet and sermonist John Dunne wrote in the 1600s:-

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

- Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind -.

Indeed!

The Plutocrat

Those of you who may regularly read what I write will be aware of my love of poetry and of a few references to writers and composers of verse.

In this instance I quote from the Lebanese American poet and author, Kahlil Gibran – he who wrote the well-known book, “The Prophet”.

This is a very short tale from another of Gibran’s books, “The Forerunner”:-

The Plutocrat

In my wanderings I once saw upon an island a man-headed, iron-hoofed monster who ate the earth and drank the sea incessantly. And for a long time I watched him. Then I approached him and said, “Have you never enough; is your hunger never satisfied and your thirst never quenched?”

And he answered saying, “Yes, I am satisfied, nay, I am weary of eating and drinking; but I am afraid that tomorrow there will be no more earth to eat and no more sea to drink.”

Anyone you know to which this may apply? 

Is this the new world paradigm?

I wonder if the current method of communicating (in no more than140 characters) is affecting how we see and react to the world about us?

It used to be that when we communicated, face to face or by that, now very “old fashioned” letter writing, we were aware of the need to be polite, to be humble, to show self-restraint and to be discrete, particularly when dealing with those personally unknown to us.

In this regard, you may not be aware of this, but I have more than a passing interest in other religions and beliefs – that is other than Christianity. They are important I feel, as they (these other religions) influence some 6 billion people. That is a fair number!

In this connection I offer a very abbreviated (hopefully reasonably accurate) synopsis of an aspect of Hinduism that I find quite interesting. This is interesting as what has been believed for thousands of years (Hinduism, and it derivatives, is the oldest surviving religion in the world - I understand it even predates Judaism) is strangely applicable in todays rather unsettled world.

The Hindus believe in the “Yugas” – or the different ages that human beings have experienced in the world since we first became human. We are, according to these beliefs, now about 3000 years into the last of the four Yugas - the Kali Yuga wherein civilization degenerates into chaos.

Some of the (alleged) attributes of the Kali Yuga, are that:

•    Rulers will become unreasonable.

•    Rulers will no longer see it as their duty to promote spirituality, or to protect their subjects: they will become a danger to the world.

•    People will start migrating.

•    There will exist no topics on the subject of spirituality or God, even at the residences of so-called saints and respectable gentlemen and nothing will be known of the need for sacrifice, even by word.

With regard to human relationships:

•    Avarice and wrath will be common. Humans will openly display animosity towards each other. Ignorance will be widespread.

•    People will have thoughts of murder with no justification and will see nothing wrong in that.

•    Lust will be viewed as socially acceptable and sexual activity will be seen as the central requirement of life.

•    Sin will increase exponentially, while virtue will fade and cease to flourish.

•    People will take vows and break them soon after.

•    People will become addicted to intoxicating drinks and drugs.

An interesting future! It used to be that facts were facts and news was news. No more!

Quite appropriately, Nietzsche, admittedly not my favorite philosopher, said: “Anyone who fights with monsters should take care that he does not in the process become a monster.”