Sunday, September 19, 2010

The greatest of these...

Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake; Please allow me the ability to haunt the bitches that got on my nerves! Amen.

Fairytales unfold in black and white. The good guys are obvious; ditto for the bad guys. Dogma plays out in similar fashion. Oh look! There’s Christ with white robes and halo. Look there! It’s the devil with horns and red pajamas. Eve, watch out! Snake! Adam, watch out! Eve! I suppose the imagery is meant to be obvious so that a child’s mind can grasp the concept. Unfortunately we carry those naïve concepts into adulthood with the expectation that we’ll see evil before it has a chance to creep up on us…WRONG!

Samuel Johnson said, “The supreme end of education is expert discernment in all things – the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit.” Well, duh! That’s easily said but what do you do if the bad and the counterfeit are smarter than you and what do you do if they mount a vessel that might very well be good and genuine and manipulate said vessel as to accentuate the bad and counterfeit under the guise of the good and genuine? Riddle me that! Duped again is what that adds up to but guess what – duped does not mean defeated.

Gandhi said, ”Remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murders and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall –think of it, ALWAYS.”

Buddah said, “All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.”

Camus said, “The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.”

What I am trying to understand is that I am both good and bad. I am genuine and I am counterfeit. If I can accept my propensity toward both as dictated by the circumstances that affect me maybe I can learn to recognize both within me and in doing so maybe I'll recognize both in others. Hopefully I'll learn to dodge the evil bullet. If not, hopefully I can forgive and in doing so, be forgiven.

Nietzsche said, “What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.”

Love, huh?

Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake; Please give me the ability to love the bitches that get on my nerves.

I’m not there yet.