It was a memorable day. Last month this blog and website were offline for exactly 21 days. Is there some magic in this number that is the product of primes?
Best as anyone can ascertain there was no technical reason for this. All the technical dots and tittles were thoroughly checked, double checked, and then triple checked by multiple “experts” from multiple companies. No problem. BUT no real world result either.
Do We Call it an Act of God?
The site stopped publishing for no apparent reason.
Stranger still, the site began publishing again for no reason.
A friend asked me recently what did I think this unexpected event was all about?
I’m used to it by now. Silly me. What should I expect? When you try to understand the role of the unexpected in the Quantum Universe you soon discover it happens all the time. It is normal.
To my friend I can only say there’s a personal answer, a public aspect, and a spiritual one too. These are common to all human experience.
Harlan Ellison, of “The Outer Limits” fame, wrote a Hugo Award winning short story notably called,
I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream
This creepy, post-apocalyptic tale expresses my initial personal emotions pretty well. We all get it. The entire episode was charged with Orwellian speak as I mentioned before. I recognize it is really unfair to call it “Orwellian”. He was a person wise enough to write about the philosophical bondage and deceit inherent in syntax and words.
The uncontrollable experience, in one form or another, is more common in our lives than we want.
We know that Bible bit about “trials and suffering”. We spend too much time and attention trying to avoid the opportunities the unexpected presents us with.
The Event
Once beyond the some initial angst; it is time to move and act. Why put off what I know I should have done? The event set me off on a whole new set of educational and skill-building adventures. I learned two new operating systems, and new database engine, yet another scripting language, and a new content management system to boot. Things I saw dimly. Now perhaps I see more clearly. For that I am grateful and inspired. Will this work produce fruit?
God is Good
We so much want to believe in a universe of Newtonian cause and effect. “If this, then that” underpins our perceptions and expectations of the world around us. That is a motive creature of our own making. This form of thinking reduces our risk. It mostly works keeps us alive; and may preoccupy our internal time. That often gets out of hand. It can lead to madness.
High Anxiety
You could seriously argue and probably conclusively prove that Anxiety has become the social disease of our time.
“Fear is the mind killer.”
There are useful ways to deal with fear. There is the road less traveled. There is the road most traveled. “Take a chill pill” becomes a seriously big, sometimes criminal, and always sociopolitical business.
We can act to stem this tide of darkness. That requires a repetitive personal accountability. We should honor those that have and do.
That is the point of Memorial Day. Sadly, this is the point many neglect to mention. It serves them better to maintain the pretense that someone else can do the act of personal witness and testimony for you.
I do try remember Mel Brooks’ High Anxiety. Laughter is good for the soul.
We take ourselves far too seriously. When we do, we must acknowledge we miss the significant. Our selfish preoccupation with the intentions of others and our own intent gets in the way. This breeds volleys of accusation. That insistent spiral of accusation is manifest all about us. We all know this is dangerous ground – something mightily social to rightfully fear itself.
Stand and Abide
The modern and sanitized word for our responsive behavior is “denial”.
Frankly, I prefer the old word “Sin” – a personal action that makes you a bad actor.
Sin has more salt in it than the flavorless.
Sin has more bite than denial.
The word hopefully inspires accountability and personal action not social introspection and study.
Is it our fault we think like humanists? That we give undue credence to the importance of intent? That we are seduced by its cry to accusation?
No and yes.
No, because it’s human. Yes, because we listen to the lie.
We can choose to overcome.
Solomon wisely declared,
“All is Vanity”
Many think Solomon was depressed and pretty depressing when he penned that memorandum.
I merely beg to differ given what we have to consider here.
Today, I find that most memorable.