Author: prayerfullife7

I can like a parade; if I must. If someone else’s enjoyment requires me to go along, and they need, or want me to co-sign on that experience with them; I can do it. But I don’t like parades. Crowds make me uncomfortable. Loud noises annoy me. So much stimulation gives me a headache.

But we put up with these things, for others. Life teaches us to sacrifice, and we learn to think of others in addition to, or more than we think of ourselves. We grow up, we become adults, and we gain maturity. Sacrificing for others is one of the hallmarks of maturity. At first we may not like it. As children, our parents may make us consider a sibling’s feelings over our own; or as young adults we may be called upon to consider those less fortunate than us and to give of our surplus. We start off sacrificing through clenched teeth, grimacing; and we begin giving with clenched fists. Our conscience slowly prying our fingers open, as we continue to give and become mature.

Eventually, hopefully, we learn to give graciously, and we learn to enjoy it. We give joyfully. For instance, I can smile at a parade now; and most of the time I’m not even faking it. I’ve learned to overlook all of my discomforts and find joy in the things I like: focusing upon the happy children all about, the cute pets at my feet, the classic sports cars all in line, the silly costumes, and the candy. I can be pleasant at a parade; if I must.

Learning this kind of maturity is good. It helps us ‘play well with others’. But it isn’t without its dangers. I’ve met plenty of people who can get along and be a good neighbor, but who haven’t the foggiest idea what they really think, or what they really like. They know what they’re supposed to like, and they can say all the things they believe they should think. But the critical internal processes that lead a person to character traits like integrity and courage have become lost along the way. For many of us, this path to maturity has led us also into a befuddled confusion. We know how to get along with others, but we can’t get along with ourselves.

Knowing how to live with others takes maturity. Knowing how to live with ourselves takes wisdom.

I suspect we all know on some level, that in this process of ‘growing up’ we’ve lost something vital. Perhaps this is at the root of the widespread narcissism we see in our world today. Folks are desperately trying to find ‘their truth’, and live ‘their best lives’ although we haven’t the faintest idea what makes for truth, or a quality life. Furthermore, folks attempt to make others bend to their own desires, in hopes of living a good life.

We have gained maturity by learning to say ‘No’ to our selfishness, in favor of what others want (our parents would be proud). Now, I suspect we can gain wisdom by the same process.  By saying ‘No’ to the selfishness that is all around us, by saying ‘No’ to everything that would reduce us down to a means of fulfilling the desires of someone else, we find freedom. In this way, we can extricate ourselves from the web of confusion all around us, and we can discover truths that dwell deep within us. We grow independent of this greedy and manipulative world.   

We must say ‘No’ to simply being consumers, or becoming ‘brands’, for we are humans not corporations. We must say ‘No’ to having our spiritual humanity reduced to material commodities and economic units. We should say ‘No’ even to our friends and family members when they want to manipulate us, simply to satisfy their own desires, which may not be in our best interest.

At the root, maturity and wisdom both require discernment. ‘No’ is the excellent path to knowing. Saying ‘No’ builds inner strength and courage. Witnessing the external results which follow from saying ‘No’, helps us to gain discernment and attain wisdom. It is good to be mature, but it is excellent to be wise. Freedom and independence depend upon a healthy, discerning ability to say ‘No’!

~FS

I recently ran updates on my computer. I knew I shouldn’t do it. Years of past experience told me that it was a dangerous and foolish thing to do. I’ve resisted their reminders for weeks now, maybe months, possibly even years. But in a moment of weakness I clicked on ‘update and then shut down’ when I turned off my computer the other day. I thought to myself: maybe this update is important, perhaps it was for my benefit—and I worried that if I kept ignoring it, then something bad might happen to me. I forgot, in a moment of dementia, that every other time I’ve ever updated my software in the past, it invariably has caused me untold angst, frustration, and despair as it surprisingly changes all the settings I’ve come to rely upon, or it adds new unexpected annoyances that pop-up and never go away. 

Computers can be useful tools. We can do lots of cool stuff with them. But the people who design the software that runs them should not be allowed to get near them again, once they finish their first version. Assuming their initial effort works satisfyingly well, software engineers should be locked out henceforth, and denied all further access to our machines. If they must ‘improve’ something, let them turn their efforts to improving their own relationships (don’t their kids need their moms or dads to toss a ball with them, or help them with their homework?), or they should be unleashed on some other aspect of life to ‘improve’, but not our computers. If the computer ain’t broke, please don’t ‘fix’ it.

At first this seems a good idea, but then, can you imagine what might happen if software engineers were unleashed upon other spheres of our lives? Let’s say you’re a carpenter and you build decks. You own a hammer that you enjoy using. Then all of a sudden the engineers come along and take your hammer and give you the new version. This one has a built-in fan that helps cool your hands in hot weather. But the damn thing breaks every time you try to hit a nail with it. The fan blades can’t take the impact. So a month later they’ve come up with a fix. It is a soft rubber cover that fits over the hammer-head so the fan blades won’t be jarred as you hammer. It works, the fan blades no longer break. But now the hammer isn’t hard, and it can’t set nails anymore, and the nail-heads tear through the rubber cover, shredding it, making it unusable. You try to find the first version of the hammer; the one you really liked that worked, but nobody sells it anymore and it isn’t supported.

Thankfully, hammer 3.0 just came out, so you buy that one. It sets nails again, and the fan seems to work without too much effort, though the batteries keep falling out the end of the hammer, but you fix that with duct tape. Everything is good, until your subscription expires. Who knew you had to have a subscription to use your hammer now! You think you can get away with it, so you keep hammering with it, but they have your credit card, and at the end of the month you get dinged for $278.50. It turns out they snuck a microchip into this version of your hammer that tabulates every use; so that every time you hit something with it, they charge you twenty-five cents, since you are using an unlicensed version. You really just want to build decks, but now you are spending all your time trying to figure out how to work with your hammer. You hire someone to hack the chip inside it, at the cost of $150. Now you’re back in business, until your saw breaks.

You have to buy a new one, nobody fixes the one you’ve been using. It was a good saw. But you get a new one and it cuts wood very nicely. The folks at the store show you how it works and its very efficient and you are glad you upgraded, though you still miss your old saw. But you’re about to make decks again, and that’s what you love to do. You unpack the saw but can’t make it work. It turns out there are two hidden buttons up inside the case that nobody told you about. They designed it that way because it looks cool and keeps the buttons from getting wet. But after several calls and a few hours of discussion, you and your buddies figure it out. You locate the buttons and you get the saw going. But the next day you can’t get the saw to work again, even after pressing the hidden buttons. You make a few more calls, but nobody can help you. They ask you to bring the saw into the store. After a few hours at the store, and several calls to the manufacturer, you discover that the day before you didn’t turn the saw off in the correct way; you just unplugged it, stupid. Of course it won’t work again if you do that! First—You have to press the button on the inner left side of the case when turning the saw off. Secondly—that other hidden button, you need to depress that while simultaneously unplugging the saw; this is a safety feature that is designed to help keep the software engineers employed.

On the way back to your jobsite you wonder if you are really a carpenter any longer, or are you becoming a tool technician instead? You’re learning a lot more about your tools than you ever wanted to know. You think, maybe you should give up building decks and just get into tool repair instead. Maybe if you just knuckle down and learn everything there is to know about your new hammer, and your new saw, then you can keep them working long enough to get back to building decks. But you’d really rather just be building decks and not spending all your time learning about the latest version of your tools. Sigh.

And then you think, what if these clowns designed everything?! We wouldn’t get anything done.

~FS

Scene 7:  [Campsite. The Visitors are breaking camp.]

Bernard:  Tell me, Jean Arnaut, where to now?

Jean Arnaut:  Finding our place grows more difficult with every passing year, it seems.

Bernard:  Although it has never been easy.

Jean Arnaut:  Maybe we’ll have to start selling peaches!

Bernard:  God forbid! We’re apple people.

Jean Arnaut:  It’s tough to teach old dogs new tricks. We’re just a dying breed, my friend. Human society is fast becoming a monoculture. We don’t fit in.

Bernard:  Only cultivated fields everywhere, and less and less wild ones.

Jean Arnaut:  And only the appearance of variety. Maybe young Hugo over there will figure it all out, what eludes us.

Bernard:  I’ll put my hope in the lad. And in his hopes of raising wild horses. Maybe he’ll find a way to make life work.

[Hugh and Chloe enter.]

Jean Arnaut:  What’s this? Another young man full of hope?! And it appears his hopes have been fulfilled!

Hugh:  Jean Arnaut! Yes! I’ve never formally introduced you two. I would like to introduce my fiancé, Chloe!

Jean Arnaut:  Fiancé?! Marvelous! Congratulations to the both of you! This is very hopeful indeed!

Chloe:  It’s always wisest to put our hopes in deeds. Since people’s words alone are almost always disappointing.

Jean Arnaut:  I’ve been plenty disappointed by people’s deeds as well. But now is no time for an old man’s cynicisms. We have a wedding upcoming! And new adventures await us! Where will you two be going now?

Hugh:  If it is alright with all of you, we would like to join you, and travel the world together!

Jean Arnaut:  Of course! We always welcome new friends! You both are very welcome to join us! Although, I should warn you, our path is not an easy one.

Bernard:  It will certainly put your vows to the test, especially the part about richer and poorer.

Jean Arnaut:  But what we lack in money, we gain in character and empathy. We love one another unfeigned, with nothing to gain and nothing to lose!

Hugh: We can do that!

Bernard:  Life often has a way of ignoring our preferences. Can you live with that?

Hugh:  Chloe, you once said you’d prefer to be rich, rather than poor.

Chloe:  As long as I’m with you, I don’t care either way.

Jean Arnaut:  Though that sentiment is often easier expressed when one is wealthy, rather than poor. What about you, Hugh? Would you feel the same about Chloe is she were poor, as you would if she were rich?

Hugh:  Yes, either way!

Chloe:  Hugh! Now that’s a good answer!

Hugh:  Finally! And I wasn’t even trying.

Chloe:  And what about all of you? How did you feel about our little town of Harmony?

Hugo:  I liked it!

Jean Arnaut:  I didn’t much care for it. But that’s life, like it or not!

[The End.]

~FS

Scene 6:  [Marion is outside her house. Hugh enters carrying two boxes.]

Marion:  [Calling to Chloe inside the house.] Chloe! Hugh is here. It looks like he has something for you!

Chloe:  [Yelling from inside.]  What is it? It better not be from a fruit stand!

Marion:  No, it’s in a box. Two boxes!

Chloe:  [Pokes her head through the door.] Really?! Two? That’s certainly better than one.

Marion:  They look from a department store! [Worried. Whispering to Hugh.] Did you pick them out yourself? Oh, dear.

Chloe:  [Walking towards Hugh.] Did you pick those out yourself?

Hugh:  I had some help from the lady at the store.

Chloe:  Oh, that’s a relief. That gives me greater confidence.

Hugh:  I’m certain you’ll like them. Well, I hope you do. [He hands the boxes to her.] Here, open them!

Chloe:  I’m a little nervous. It could be anything. And so much depends on this. But you did say that you got help, so, that’s really good news.

Marion:  Open it already! I’m dying of suspense.

Chloe:  I will, mother! Okay. [She opens the first box and pulls out a handbag.] Oh, thank God!

Marion:  What a relief!

Chloe:  It’s beautiful. I love it!

Marion:  Open the next one!

Chloe:  I will! I have much greater hope now. I wonder what it is?! [She opens the second box and pulls out a pair of shoes.] They’re exactly the ones I saw that girl wearing! They’re perfect!

Marion:  Well done, Hugh! You did it.

Chloe:  Yes, you did it Hugh! Finally! I love them. And I love you!  

[She embraces and kisses him.]

Hugh:  You do, Chloe! Do you mean it?

Chloe:  Of course! I’ve always loved you, I’ve never stopped loving you. I don’t think I could stop loving you, Hugh. But it is much easier to express my love, now that you’ve given me such lovely gifts! Getting new shoes always makes my love flow freely!

Hugh:  I could never stop loving you either, Chloe!  I just have one question, Chloe. Why did you tell me to bring you a good answer?

Chloe: A good answer? I never said that.

Hugh:  Yes, I remember it exactly.

Chloe:  But that doesn’t make any sense. Ha! What would be the question then? Did you even think about that?!  Hugh, what would I care about answers, good or bad, or about questions?

Hugh:  But you told me all along that I had to have an answer for you. You forbade me seeing you until I had a ‘good answer’!

Chloe:  Silly boy. There you go again! You’re so literal sometimes. You pay far too much attention to what I say, and not nearly enough attention to what I mean.

Hugh:  But Chloe, how can I know what you mean, except by what you say? 

Chloe:  What people say almost never has anything to do with what they mean, Hugh. Especially about important things. I’m surprised you don’t know that.

Hugh:  That explains so much.

Chloe:  Oh Hugh! Why must we ever talk about important things? I think unimportant things are so much more interesting. Besides, you’re much more attractive when you’re speaking about unimportant things!

Hugh:  I love speaking about unimportant things with you, Chloe. [They kiss.]

Chloe:  I know. That is also what I love about you. Triviality makes you adorable, and I always want to adore you, Hugh.

Hugh:  Then I will always strive to be as trivial as I can possibly be, my dear Chloe. I will make myself utterly trivial for you. Only promise, to never stop loving me. The world is so dull and tasteless without your love. [They embrace and kiss again.]

[End of Scene.]

~FS