We have a new thread, “Purpose of Human Existence” and everything I could think of sharing would be objected to by some, so I’ll do the flip side.
Life is about living and nurturing one’s own life and hopefully that of a few others along the way.
It begins with being brutally honest with oneself. Facing one’s flaws and dealing with oneself head on, yada, yada, yada.
I look at people today and wonder where are they running to, what do they think they are accomplishing with their outlandish spending, waste and impossible dreams and expectations?
I wonder, how well is your relationship with your family and other people?
Today I’ve had call to recall my two first hero’s and their values, and this quote is just scratching the surface of their story.
Then there was the ‘other’ world on the East side of Lake Michigan, our Aunt and Uncle’s vacation home on top of a sand dune at Beverly Shores, Indiana, now the Indiana Dunes State Park. Could say it was a destination location for their extended family, so it was often crowded.
The nights, as well as the days were an adventure. While adults entertained downstairs we kids would get packed into the attic, barracks style, and bedtime started with stories that drifted off to be replaced by insect and critter sounds that spooked and excited and fed our imaginations better than TV.
The house, was the most amazing beautiful weird place, and at this point in my life it simply overwhelmed, beside the complex house, a mosquito proof gazebo, small concrete pool, small garden paths, a wishing well, on the back hillside a swing that must have hung from a hundred feet up in a tree.
Also among my earliest memories was Uncle Julius sincerely explaining to me that at night the lake was drained for cleaning. I didn’t buy it. But, he made it sound sooo believable. Yet it didn’t make any sense. Yet, he was Uncle Julius, he knew everything. He was the coolest. He wouldn’t lie to me. Or would he? It had my little head in a turmoil, especially since my brother and Dad went along with him. Eventually, I arrived at the conclusion, big people lied because I could never figure out how in the world they’d be able to refill it every morning.
When the mornings came around again our master of ceremonies Uncle Julius would rally us with plans for the day, as Aunt Elsie kept order and fed us. Then he lead the race down to the shoreline.
Besides the sand and the waves, he had discovered some clay deposits and loved making sculptures with it. He usually had a supply of the natural modeling clay ready to use and loved teaching us young kids how to do make faces and whatever we wanted.
Aunt Elsie was the matriarch of the house and boss, and besides cooking, she engaged in a relentless, though losing, battle to keep sand out of the house. She’d meet us on the deck, to make sure everyone followed the foot washing routine before entering.
We tried, but it never worked. So everyday, when we were playing by the lake, she returned to her Sisyphean task of sweeping up dust pans full of sand, to toss back out onto the dunes. Only to see her crowd returning from the beach, with stuck on sand up to our knees and in every fold of clothing.
We felt for her and she was genuinely loved by all of us for her indomitable spirit and putting up with our circus.
The juxtaposition between Carol Stream and Beverly Shores impressed me as far back as I could remember. While I loved visiting both, Beverly Shores was always a thrill and felt magical, while Carol Stream was more like comfort food.
But the possibility for those kinds of lives has been destroyed by the fool’s god of PROGRESS run amok. And the final nails in the coffin are humanity’s population explosion - and unrepentant boundless hubris.
So now, I suggest the big deal is getting right with oneself.
Looking back from 69 it’s a meditation for me to appreciate, we were there, it is a part of me. Sure it wasn’t always that good, still, it was filled with more than enough good and wonderful moments to make me and my sibs forever grateful for what we had and experienced - even if it didn’t always feel that way going through it.
What made all the difference was that we were secure in our parents’ love, and through all the foibles and dramas of life to come, that thread remained solid throughout. I never take for granted, what a leg up that gave me, and all my siblings, in the unforgiving game of life to come.
Before I leave my pre kindergarten years, there was that one particular day, that moment that sparked my first epiphany. With the sun streaming through the front windows onto the rug I was playing on. Mom was bustling around, and the sunshine transmuted floating dust motes into sparking stars and universes. At one point I can still picture my Mom walking past me, then watching this beautiful vortex of sparkling points swirling in her wake.
Out of the blue I remember asking: “Who is God?”
I like to think it took her a couple beats before answering: “A speck of dust that wanted to be more.”
I must have been primed, because it blew me away and rippled throughout my young being and never left. I repeated the thought like a mantra and I felt it was special. It was fascinating. I came to understand that it did better than answer my question, it left me with a riddle and an abiding challenge that turned my life into an adventure to experience.
Metaphorically speaking, heck, even physically speaking; the arrow of time working on matter, always “wanting” to be more. Earth’s biological evolution, always striving to be more. Humanity’s drive toward self destruction, driven by always wanting more.
For me, instead of an answer, it was a riddle and a challenge worth rolling around in my thoughts. It imprinting itself into how I grew up looking at my self and the world around me. I had no God to obsess over, one way or the other - my parents made it a non-issue, and Mom’s wisdom helped me stumble onto a path of discovering a more objective, Earth-centered appreciation for humanity’s eternal questions and resolving our fears.
I belabor the point because the framing and challenge inherent in that soundbite: “A speck of dust that wanted to be more,” took up the mental/spiritual centerstage in my young imagination. I believe it is at the foundation of my homespun cosmological and humanistic outlook. God’s shackles were never attached and I was free to learn about this miracle planet Earth that created us.
