Revere Life
What has become obvious, I have had only one idea, and I still do not know what it is. Just when I think I have come upon a new awareness, or experience, I find that it is the same idea with new words, only increased urgency. I have read theology with an urgency similar to the way a mother reads a First-Aid Manual when her child is spurting blood.
A few years ago, having realized this, I said to myself, “I do not know,” and I still liked myself. The neurotic compulsion let go; I did not ‘have to know’. There was still an intensity; I still wanted to know, but I was freed up. The word ‘Mystery’ took on new importance; no idea would ever content me; my soul was able to soar and plunge more playfully, while still experiencing awe and wonder.
Then, I decided on a ‘project of passion’ that held my ideas together (coherent basis). “Reverence for life” was chosen to formulate the ‘intentionality’ of my thinking, as I sought to join the evolutionary project of creating consciousness. Friends, who were long gone, Meister Eckhart, F. W. Nietzsche, Søren Kierkegaard, etc., continued their dialogue in my head.
Albert Schweitzer provided one sentence that satisfied me: “Reverence for life means to be in the grasp of the Infinite, inexplicable, forward urging Will, in which all being is grounded.” Not only did this satisfy my ‘hunger and thirst” for essential righteousness; my concern about society was given a basis for ‘activism’.
Reverence overcomes the alienation and fragmentation that proves to be so ruinous to the economy of the planetary community. Connecting with such a deep purpose as reverence for life brings people together with passion, even with those we thought were our enemies. The urgency is that the world is spurting blood.