We
are all seekers, whether it is to discover the meaning of life, or to discover
our own journey and place in life. But sometimes it’s easier to float, not
questioning anything, just putting one foot in front of the other. I think one
hundred years ago, even fifty, that was more or less the conventional wisdom;
the old Puritan Ethic. The model was work hard and don’t think too hard. It was
more or less a matter of survival.
At about that time, the late sixties, the
paradigm shifted. For many Timothy Leary summed it up with his famous, "Turn on, tune in, drop out.” The
pendulum swung to the opposite side. Everything was a colorful jumble of ideas,
philosophies and lifestyles. While living in a commune sounded idyllic for many
it was not sustainable for others. Many people preferred to buy their food
rather than grow it, shave instead of grow a beard, wear deodorant rather than
smell “earthy.” Many wanted a more conventional way of life without sacrificing
the positive ideas.
There are many good things that
came out of that time that seem to be sticking around. Beards:); both men and
women, are often not afraid to talk about their feelings; Mindfulness; Meditation;
a sincere belief in the sanctity of nature; conservation of the Earth; a belief
that we are all connected.
Still, with the advent of
technology came a double edged sword. In the last twenty odd years, it has
robbed us of some of that connection. In some ways we are more connected
digitally than ever before but in others we have never been more separate. For
some, the struggle will always be the journey. Perhaps the pendulum is swinging
in another direction altogether.
I do have faith in basic human
kindness and intelligence. So I do believe the Seeker in all of us will figure
it out. Consider the words of Rainer Maria Rilke in Letters to a Young Poet:
"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart
and to try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books
that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which
cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point
is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually,
without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."
September,
Pisgah Pike, Versailles, Ky. Photographer: Whit Chandler
