What I'm Looking for in These Ugly Times

There is this from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland,”

Mad Hatter: “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”

(There is a long pause.)
“Have you guessed the riddle yet?” the Hatter said, turning to Alice again.
“No, I give up,” Alice replied: “What’s the answer?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea,” said the Hatter.

And so, there you have it. My dilemma. I’m trying to figure out what happened to us as a nation. It’s a riddle I can’t answer. I haven’t the slightest idea.

There are possible answers, I suppose. We got too big. We overachieved. We mixed religion with politics and politics took over religion. We became insanely selfish. We forgot our neighbors. We learned to hate more than we learned to love. We confined ourselves to our own kind and decided “others” were our enemies. We stopped thinking. We stopped caring. We stopped growing.

The list is pretty much endless.

So here we are. A nation in crisis. We’re surrounded by the greatest gadgets and devices and playthings imaginable. We text but we don’t talk. We stare into a screen and we miss the gorgeous world moving by us. We instant message but we’ve forgotten how to sincerely communicate.

We have lost what mystic Joseph Campbell called “the rapture of being alive.”

Alienated from our conscience we operate out of primitive urges. We have stopped morally evolving. We’re back to the Garden of Eden ignoring the wisdom that warned there are limits we must honor. And if we don’t there will be consequences.

We are now living those consequences.

“Don’t hate your enemy,” the ancient rabbis wrote, “or you become like him.” We dismissed that caution long ago. Now we are what we hate.

Outside our damaged nation are strewn other nations broken and disheartened. We were once a model of hope for them. We were once an example of how ingenuity, skill, education, hard work, and values could produce unimaginable wonders.

The wonders remain, but the intelligent drive and the natural gifts that created them have diminished. Today we are motivated by forces that seem sinister, predatory, and heartless.

When your power is fueled by those things it is no wonder then we have no idea what to do about the injustices we live with. And why no one seems to have a clue what to do about Syria and ISIS and guns and school shooters and home-grown terrorists in America.

Buddhism teaches that the craving desire to act for self-interest binds us to suffering. And so it does. How clear that truth now is all around us. Our torment is self-created and self-perpetuating.

What will save us, Alice? She doesn’t know. Neither does the Mad Hatter. Nor does seemingly anyone else.

Dostoevsky, though, had an idea. “Beauty,” he wrote, “will save the world.”

That’s what I’m looking for in these ugly times.

If I had five minutes to evacuate--what would I take with me?

If I was told there was a bomb in my building and I had five minutes to evacuate my apartment I’d grab a grocery bag and quickly toss these items into it: 1. A photo of my grandparents, Mom and Pop and me, when I was 15 years old. I learned what love is made of from them. I learned what it is to be kissed on and hugged in arms so tender they felt like God’s arms. I discovered self worth from those two angels in human flesh. Of all the people in my life, they were the ones who made me feel I counted. Honestly, whatever capacity I have to love others came from them. 2. A sentimental, dog-eared, stars in the margin copy of Pat Conroy’s, “The Prince of Tides.” It is a book I have read three times and often return to for its wisdom. It is a harsh, profoundly tragic novel, the story of a family so broken and tortured by such flawed and wounded people that it is sometimes difficult to turn the next page. And yet it is the story of such Herculean courage and endurance that you want...

I Saw the Delicacy of Life

I was flying Across the deep And I saw the delicacy Of life Wrinkles on the faces Of the old So pure they glistened Like awards The joy of children Running with abandon Their laughter ringing Like chimes in the wind I saw the soft moving waves Across the sea And the trees releasing Their rainbow leaves Birds joined me on my flight And I saw the surface of their wings Adorned with patterns Glorious and unfurled I saw the tears of the sad And the smiles of the glad The suffering in mourning And the celebration of birth As I descended toward the ground Slowly, slowly, softly I saw the gentle grass of the field And smelled the fresh earth It was a perfect landing © 2018 Timothy Moody

Actions Make a Difference

“We make progress in society only if we stop cursing and complaining about its shortcomings and have the courage to do something about them.” ~ Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Physician/Author Pictured here is Kikuko Shinjo, 89 years old, a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb blast. As a 17-year old nursing student she helped nurse victims of the carnage back to health. Many of them died in her care. She says she holds no grudge against America and encourages interaction between the Japanese and Americans. She has devoted her life to peace, saying, “I want all the people around the world to be friends, and I want to make my country peaceful without fighting.” Today she makes colorful paper cranes and donates them to the Children’s Peace Monument at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

The Unclad Soul

Search This Blog