Thursday, July 01, 2004
Power and Control
I was driving up I-94 in my new Saturn Vue. I hadn't been sure about the Vue when I first got it, but when the sales rep took me out to the parking lot to take that required picture of new owner and vehicle, there was a huge double rainbow right overhead. It was a Sign.
So when looked down at the odometer and it was at 3330, it was also a Sign. Within three miles, it would be at 3333. Certainly that must mean something important. Excitedly anticipating this momentous occasion, I searched the horizon to see what would be my Sign. Would it be a mall? A cemetery? A factory? A school? My whole future, perhaps the future of mankind, rested on this Sign.
I must have slowed a bit. Other cars started whizzing past. I looked over at the other drivers, grinning like an idiot, to see if they were also as excited about this great Sign that was coming. They were, as most other people are in my world, apathetically ignorant of the important things in life.
3331... 3332... almost here. And then it came. 3333. I looked to the left. I looked to the right. It was a golf course. A golf course? A golf course! I don't play golf. I can't play golf -- ever. That shrew that ploughed into my first Saturn saw to that. I have too much metal in my leg. I can't do that little twisty turn you do when you swing the club. Golf means nothing to me. Absolutely nothing. That wasn't a Sign at all. It wasn't even a little sign. No premonition into what will come next in my life. It was just another car odometer turning to 3333.
And then I thought of poor CeeCee. She had prayed and prayed for a good man to come into her life. And when a man telephoned her the day after their first date and called her "Angel" she was certain her prince had come. She lived this whole last year in ecstacy. Well, rarely in distress, anyway. But she was determined to make this relationship work. After all, she had a Sign. Despite her spirituality and his nasty temper, her good nature, his mean-sidedness, her glowing, his cussing, her love of her children, his straining to tolerate the kids, she was sure God had made them a couple. Now she is devastated. She wasted a whole year on a lie. Well, actually, she had a great year filled with fun and love and hopes. But now she has had to come back to the devastating reality -- God did not talk to her, He did not give her a Sign, and this man is not going to marry her.
All this made me think of Deepak Chopra and his Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. Basically he says what every good mother and every good teacher has always said -- you can't learn with your mouth open. CeeCee and I can pray and beg and chant and sing. We can scream at God. We can whisper incantations. Fondle good luck charms and fetishes. Cut the Tarot cards, flip the black ball, toss a coin, read the wrinkles in our palms and ask the Ouija. But if we really want to know what God has to say to us, instead of some Sign that will tell us that God agrees with us or even worse, that God will obey us, we have to shut up and listen.
Learn to be very quiet. Don't think, don't hear, don't judge anything: just be. Learn to be quiet. Learn to be still. And when we get good at that, we can allow one glimpse of our hopes into the meditation. It is all we need do. God knows our hearts. We may want some control over our own lives. But the more we force and struggle and strain, the less effect we have.
Whether it comes from Eastern or Western religion, the truth is taught the same. Give freely from your heart and good things will come back to you. I guess that is the only control we're ever allowed.
I was driving up I-94 in my new Saturn Vue. I hadn't been sure about the Vue when I first got it, but when the sales rep took me out to the parking lot to take that required picture of new owner and vehicle, there was a huge double rainbow right overhead. It was a Sign.
So when looked down at the odometer and it was at 3330, it was also a Sign. Within three miles, it would be at 3333. Certainly that must mean something important. Excitedly anticipating this momentous occasion, I searched the horizon to see what would be my Sign. Would it be a mall? A cemetery? A factory? A school? My whole future, perhaps the future of mankind, rested on this Sign.
I must have slowed a bit. Other cars started whizzing past. I looked over at the other drivers, grinning like an idiot, to see if they were also as excited about this great Sign that was coming. They were, as most other people are in my world, apathetically ignorant of the important things in life.
3331... 3332... almost here. And then it came. 3333. I looked to the left. I looked to the right. It was a golf course. A golf course? A golf course! I don't play golf. I can't play golf -- ever. That shrew that ploughed into my first Saturn saw to that. I have too much metal in my leg. I can't do that little twisty turn you do when you swing the club. Golf means nothing to me. Absolutely nothing. That wasn't a Sign at all. It wasn't even a little sign. No premonition into what will come next in my life. It was just another car odometer turning to 3333.
And then I thought of poor CeeCee. She had prayed and prayed for a good man to come into her life. And when a man telephoned her the day after their first date and called her "Angel" she was certain her prince had come. She lived this whole last year in ecstacy. Well, rarely in distress, anyway. But she was determined to make this relationship work. After all, she had a Sign. Despite her spirituality and his nasty temper, her good nature, his mean-sidedness, her glowing, his cussing, her love of her children, his straining to tolerate the kids, she was sure God had made them a couple. Now she is devastated. She wasted a whole year on a lie. Well, actually, she had a great year filled with fun and love and hopes. But now she has had to come back to the devastating reality -- God did not talk to her, He did not give her a Sign, and this man is not going to marry her.
All this made me think of Deepak Chopra and his Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. Basically he says what every good mother and every good teacher has always said -- you can't learn with your mouth open. CeeCee and I can pray and beg and chant and sing. We can scream at God. We can whisper incantations. Fondle good luck charms and fetishes. Cut the Tarot cards, flip the black ball, toss a coin, read the wrinkles in our palms and ask the Ouija. But if we really want to know what God has to say to us, instead of some Sign that will tell us that God agrees with us or even worse, that God will obey us, we have to shut up and listen.
Learn to be very quiet. Don't think, don't hear, don't judge anything: just be. Learn to be quiet. Learn to be still. And when we get good at that, we can allow one glimpse of our hopes into the meditation. It is all we need do. God knows our hearts. We may want some control over our own lives. But the more we force and struggle and strain, the less effect we have.
Whether it comes from Eastern or Western religion, the truth is taught the same. Give freely from your heart and good things will come back to you. I guess that is the only control we're ever allowed.
