Sunday, January 01, 2006
Soliloquy as Prayer
Until recent times, to be alone, yet speak out, was often called prayer; nowadays, it is often called posting on the Internet.
Someone once asked psychologist Alfred Adler, after one of his lectures, “Dr. Adler! But what of God? What do you say about God?” Dr. Adler simply replied, “I would hope, if there is a God, that God would be pleased with the way I have lived my life.” Dr. Adler’s words were prayer in a sense. Publishing on the web is often prayer for me.
We cannot prove to ourselves or others that God exists, nor prove that there is no God. We do not need to prove to ourselves or anyone that we exist. We each have a life, and we have choices. Each waking moment we are faced with a kind of moral dilemma: “What shall I do next.” Few moments become monuments, other than a first footstep upon the moon’s surface, or a gunshot in Ford’s Theater. But, a myriad of moment to moment decisions can add up to something monumentally good and saintly, or notoriously evil, or simply add up to a life of wasted time and lost opportunities.
Often, the greatest virtue can be found in the agnostic who has bypassed God as middle-man to goodness.
I awoke on this first morning of 2006 with the thought “I hope my life is pleasing.”
I so often think of various old saying from India:
“A saint can see saintliness in even the worst of sinners, but a sinner can see sinfulness in even the holiest saint.”
“When a pickpocket meets a saint, all he sees are pockets.”
“If a woman is my elder, I must treat her as my mother. If she is my peer, I must treat her as my sister. If she is younger, I must treat her as my daughter.”
Epilogue:
In a chat room, this morning, someone complained of boredom.
I replied, “People who are bored have no one to blame but themselves. If you are bored, you can find something interesting to read or learn or discuss, and can share with other bored people.”
Boredom is sibling to sloth.
Soliloquy is an actor speaking aloud to himself. The audience hears, but the character is unaware of their presence.
An early symptom of postmodernism is when the actor explicitly addresses the audience, and when an author pauses in his narrative to speak directly to the reader as reader.
Someone once asked psychologist Alfred Adler, after one of his lectures, “Dr. Adler! But what of God? What do you say about God?” Dr. Adler simply replied, “I would hope, if there is a God, that God would be pleased with the way I have lived my life.” Dr. Adler’s words were prayer in a sense. Publishing on the web is often prayer for me.
We cannot prove to ourselves or others that God exists, nor prove that there is no God. We do not need to prove to ourselves or anyone that we exist. We each have a life, and we have choices. Each waking moment we are faced with a kind of moral dilemma: “What shall I do next.” Few moments become monuments, other than a first footstep upon the moon’s surface, or a gunshot in Ford’s Theater. But, a myriad of moment to moment decisions can add up to something monumentally good and saintly, or notoriously evil, or simply add up to a life of wasted time and lost opportunities.
Often, the greatest virtue can be found in the agnostic who has bypassed God as middle-man to goodness.
I awoke on this first morning of 2006 with the thought “I hope my life is pleasing.”
I so often think of various old saying from India:
“A saint can see saintliness in even the worst of sinners, but a sinner can see sinfulness in even the holiest saint.”
“When a pickpocket meets a saint, all he sees are pockets.”
“If a woman is my elder, I must treat her as my mother. If she is my peer, I must treat her as my sister. If she is younger, I must treat her as my daughter.”
Epilogue:
In a chat room, this morning, someone complained of boredom.
I replied, “People who are bored have no one to blame but themselves. If you are bored, you can find something interesting to read or learn or discuss, and can share with other bored people.”
Boredom is sibling to sloth.
Soliloquy is an actor speaking aloud to himself. The audience hears, but the character is unaware of their presence.
An early symptom of postmodernism is when the actor explicitly addresses the audience, and when an author pauses in his narrative to speak directly to the reader as reader.
