'Tis the Season of Natural Mystery...A Season for Reverence
No matter what label you choose to paste on this time of year - Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Christmas, Saturnalia, or even Festivus - there is one thing about it all that never changes. It is a wondrously mysterious season.
More than any other, this season should remind us to have reverence for natural mysteries, that it is more important to ask the questions than it is to have definitive answers. More phenomena, more unexplained happenings, more mystery in our lives might encourage us to think, to be curious, to marvel, to hold our breath in wonder and appreciate the different and the unique while giving no attention to all the bombastic, egotistical and boring cookie-cutter people who are determined to convince us and themselves that they're the only ones who have all the correct answers.
Wasn't it the natural curiosity of our species which tried to find explanations, no matter how foolish or unrealistic, to explain what was fearful or beyond comprehension? Isn't it obvious that all the various humans everywhere were asking the same questions about the same troubling things? Why do the seasons change? Why are the days of winter so filled with darkness? Why do some trees always wear green while others wear nothing at all?
During those times when the days were short, the nights were long, and the world was even more inhospitable with howling wind, blinding snow and treacherous ice, observant and brave naturalists of every age offered suggestions and opinions. Ancient storytellers gathered groups around warming fires in the dark of night and told tales to ease superstition, to turn frightening things into myth about supernatural beings, talking animals, and the cycle of life. Certain elements appeared in every story throughout the winter world: light to ease the darkness, whether from burning animal fat or tallow, bonfires at the entrance or centers of caves, the glow of stars overhead; feasts to increase and sate bodies and also create warmth, contentment, and sociability; gifts to bring a smile or occupy a child or create an obligation or appease a hurt or fear.
Throughout the ages of man, in the lengthening dark of cold night, questions were posed that had no real answers then and even today have no answers. What happens when humans die? Where do we go? Where do our memories go? Is there a soul? Do animals have souls? Why does water run fast or freeze? Where does water come from? When a star falls, what does it mean? Why can't we capture the moon? What is hunger? Why does the belly clench when we're afraid and hurt when we're sick? Are there Gods? Do they hear our pleas? Will summer come again? Are there people beyond the sun? Is there a wheel of life? Do we return to life again as someone else? Is there a plan? Is everything random? Are ghosts and spirits real? Is there a devil? Where does Satan live? Is there such a thing as evil? Or, is evil the opposite of good or the absence of good? Is evil suspected only by mankind?
Each age found its own set of answers to the most demanding questions, yet many of the same incomplete answer to the mysteries persisted from age to age. Even today, people call on the unseen that they choose to label God. They believe in the power of prayer not knowing if it is the words of their plea or the energy generated by their effort that has a positive effect. Storytellers still weave their fictions with the occasional moments of hope or truth interspersed, and people still seek answers or adopt beliefs to fend off the cold and the unknown.
Differing people in differening locations continue to ask the same questions even when their answers vary depending upon the geography of their landscapes, their natural dangers, their mythology of heroic warriors and wise, all-knowing sages and guides. Their ultimate beliefs might differ from those of neighbors both near and far, but there is always some similarity, if only in a hope or a dream.
People still have wonder and curiosity, although now it is called science. But not even science has all the answers because first the correct questions must be asked, and only when step follows step to an unknown destination can we know if the original question asked was the right one. That has always been the plight of man - to seek, to quest, to wonder - and it is a glorious undertaking. What would happen if mankind had the capacity to use more and more of that mechanism he labels 'brain?'
Despite the attempts of some frightened people to remake their known world into an image only they can see where all people think the same, act the same, talk the same, look the same and are satisfied with the same limited horizons, a few more intrepid souls cringe at the thought. They don't want a world devoid of differences to explore. They don't want to look over a lengthening line of people and see exactly the same expression or hollow look in every face. They do not want a homogeneous world any more than they want each day to follow the one before in exact duplication and empty sameness. They do not want to face a time when questions are no longer asked or when curiosity is appeased by indifference. The wise do NOT want to live in a world where everything has an acceptable answer determined by someone else.
May there always be questions and may there always be curious people to ask them. Perhaps that is mankind's true purpose in being - to ask again and again the universal questions that, if we are fortunate, will never be answered. Should all answers to every question be found, what remains for us? What would we strive for? Would we then have no purpose at all? Would we be able to feel sadness and grief, happiness and joy? Would we still value and celebrate light in the darkness of night?
No matter what label you choose to paste on this time of year - Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Christmas, Saturnalia, or even Festivus - there is one thing about it all that never changes. It is a wondrously mysterious season.
More than any other, this season should remind us to have reverence for natural mysteries, that it is more important to ask the questions than it is to have definitive answers. More phenomena, more unexplained happenings, more mystery in our lives might encourage us to think, to be curious, to marvel, to hold our breath in wonder and appreciate the different and the unique while giving no attention to all the bombastic, egotistical and boring cookie-cutter people who are determined to convince us and themselves that they're the only ones who have all the correct answers.
Wasn't it the natural curiosity of our species which tried to find explanations, no matter how foolish or unrealistic, to explain what was fearful or beyond comprehension? Isn't it obvious that all the various humans everywhere were asking the same questions about the same troubling things? Why do the seasons change? Why are the days of winter so filled with darkness? Why do some trees always wear green while others wear nothing at all?
During those times when the days were short, the nights were long, and the world was even more inhospitable with howling wind, blinding snow and treacherous ice, observant and brave naturalists of every age offered suggestions and opinions. Ancient storytellers gathered groups around warming fires in the dark of night and told tales to ease superstition, to turn frightening things into myth about supernatural beings, talking animals, and the cycle of life. Certain elements appeared in every story throughout the winter world: light to ease the darkness, whether from burning animal fat or tallow, bonfires at the entrance or centers of caves, the glow of stars overhead; feasts to increase and sate bodies and also create warmth, contentment, and sociability; gifts to bring a smile or occupy a child or create an obligation or appease a hurt or fear.
Throughout the ages of man, in the lengthening dark of cold night, questions were posed that had no real answers then and even today have no answers. What happens when humans die? Where do we go? Where do our memories go? Is there a soul? Do animals have souls? Why does water run fast or freeze? Where does water come from? When a star falls, what does it mean? Why can't we capture the moon? What is hunger? Why does the belly clench when we're afraid and hurt when we're sick? Are there Gods? Do they hear our pleas? Will summer come again? Are there people beyond the sun? Is there a wheel of life? Do we return to life again as someone else? Is there a plan? Is everything random? Are ghosts and spirits real? Is there a devil? Where does Satan live? Is there such a thing as evil? Or, is evil the opposite of good or the absence of good? Is evil suspected only by mankind?
Each age found its own set of answers to the most demanding questions, yet many of the same incomplete answer to the mysteries persisted from age to age. Even today, people call on the unseen that they choose to label God. They believe in the power of prayer not knowing if it is the words of their plea or the energy generated by their effort that has a positive effect. Storytellers still weave their fictions with the occasional moments of hope or truth interspersed, and people still seek answers or adopt beliefs to fend off the cold and the unknown.
Differing people in differening locations continue to ask the same questions even when their answers vary depending upon the geography of their landscapes, their natural dangers, their mythology of heroic warriors and wise, all-knowing sages and guides. Their ultimate beliefs might differ from those of neighbors both near and far, but there is always some similarity, if only in a hope or a dream.
People still have wonder and curiosity, although now it is called science. But not even science has all the answers because first the correct questions must be asked, and only when step follows step to an unknown destination can we know if the original question asked was the right one. That has always been the plight of man - to seek, to quest, to wonder - and it is a glorious undertaking. What would happen if mankind had the capacity to use more and more of that mechanism he labels 'brain?'
Despite the attempts of some frightened people to remake their known world into an image only they can see where all people think the same, act the same, talk the same, look the same and are satisfied with the same limited horizons, a few more intrepid souls cringe at the thought. They don't want a world devoid of differences to explore. They don't want to look over a lengthening line of people and see exactly the same expression or hollow look in every face. They do not want a homogeneous world any more than they want each day to follow the one before in exact duplication and empty sameness. They do not want to face a time when questions are no longer asked or when curiosity is appeased by indifference. The wise do NOT want to live in a world where everything has an acceptable answer determined by someone else.
May there always be questions and may there always be curious people to ask them. Perhaps that is mankind's true purpose in being - to ask again and again the universal questions that, if we are fortunate, will never be answered. Should all answers to every question be found, what remains for us? What would we strive for? Would we then have no purpose at all? Would we be able to feel sadness and grief, happiness and joy? Would we still value and celebrate light in the darkness of night?
posted by kaz at 5:34 AM
3 Comments:
Visit my blog in www.nezothb.blogspot.com
Kaz- what an eloquent post. It really moved me to think in greater detail about some of these questions - and of course try to write about them as well. Curiousity may have killed a cat, but it's certainly done you no harm. Thanks for some excellent thoughts for me to ponder.
thanks for stopping by and extending the invitation to your little haven on the web.
I like what I see and I will be back. Your a thinker.. an explorer... that intrigues me.
peace
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