A-a-a-akira.
Akira
The Don
He's got clout.
Hello everyone.
Apologies for the delay.
I hope this is all working.
Hopefully, I'm up to this.
I'm learning how to manage this
I think.
I'm not really interested, I suppose, in slowing down
although it has been a bit much
in the last year and a half.
I do better,
in some ways, when I'm working flat out.
So,
yeah,
I thought about
SLOWING DOWN
but I've decided against it.
There are times in your life where
it's not time to slow down.
It's time to
become more efficient.
That's the thing you can become so efficient
you end up doing things in five minutes
that would otherwise take you a week.
As you take on more responsibilities,
and you determine that you're going to become more
efficient,
the responsibility pushes the efficiency.
What do they say,
THERE IS TIME ENOUGH TO SLEEP WHEN YOU ARE
IN THE GRAVE.
ANALYSIS OF THE PURPOSE OF MEMORY.
People think that the purpose of memory
is to remember the past,
and that's not the purpose of memory.
The purpose of memory is to extract out from the past
lessons to structure the future.
LESSONS TO STRUCTURE THE FUTURE.
So you're done with a memory
when you have extracted out the information
that you can use to guide yourself properly in the future.
Done, done
with a memory when you have extracted out
the information that you can use
to guide yourself properly in the future
Done, duh-duh done
with a memory when you've extracted out
the information that you can use to guide yourself
properly in the future.
Done, duh-duh done
with a memory when you've extracted out
the information that you can use to guide yourself
properly in the future.
So if you have a traumatic memory, for example,
it's really obsessing you.
If you
analyze that memory to the point where
you figured out how you put yourself at risk
and you can determine
how you might avoid that in the future
then the emotion associated with that goes away.
Memory has a very pragmatic function.
AND CULTURAL MEMORY IS THE SAME THING.
We need to extract out stories from our past
and structure our future.
And we need that because,
first of all,
if you don't have a purpose, let's say,
it isn't
that your life becomes neutral in a meaningless
sense,
it's that your life becomes
characterized by
UNBEARABLE SUFFERING.
Because the baseline condition of life
is, something like, unbearable suffering.
Is something like unbearable suffering.
And what you have to set against that is
a noble
and worthwile
purpose.
A NOBLE
AND WORTHWHILE
PURPOSE.
Hopefully, your determination of that purpose is
buttress to some degree by the wisdom of the past
because you can't conjure something like that up on
your own.
And if you provide people with
nobility of purpose then they can tolerate
the suffering of existence without becoming entirely
corrupted by it.
And
cultures that don't do that
it isn't even so much that they die,
it's that cultures that don't do that are
DEAD.
They are done.
They don't have a story in them
and they don't have a call to adventure.
And then,
well then everyone suffers stupidly as a consequence.
It's a very bad thing.
Bring the story forward
and propagate it
and make it
the most noble, possible, story.
And then you motivate people
to transcendence
which they need to do.
People think of freedom as
the ability to implement
your whim,
and
freedom opens up that as a possibility,
but sustainable freedom that isn't
WHAT IT'S ABOUT AT ALL.
It's primarily about
responsibility.
It's about determining which load you're going to pick up
and carry.
That's the proper definition of appropriate freedom.
It's not
dim gratification of
instantaneous impulse.
It's self-evident that that doesn't work,
two-year-olds do that
and that's why they can't live in the world.
They can't organize themselves across time,
they can't
sacrifice the moment for the future.
And the more sophisticated you get, I suppose, in some
sense the more
you are able to do that.
And then your freedom becomes
the freedom to choose the proper responsibility.
That's also not something that we've been good at
communicating to young people.
If we talk to them about responsibility we generally do it
in a finger-wagging sort of way.
IT'S LIKE, WHILE YOU'RE BREAKING THE RULES
YOU'RE A BAD PERSON.
Well,
THAT MAYBE TRUE.
The proper message for
young people is to say:
"Well, no you don't understand
you want to
take on responsibility.
You want to take on the heaviest load
that you can conceive of that you might
be able to
move,
because it gives your life nobility and purpose
and that offsets the tragedy."
Offsets the tragedy.
Offsets the tragedy.
Offsets.
Offsets.
Offsets
the tragedy.
And not only psychologically
because you have a purpose
and something to wake up for
to face the difficulties of the day.
But also, because,
if you face the difficulties of the day properly
you, actually,
ameliorate suffering not only in a psychological sense
but because you make the world,
at least, a less terrible place
and that's something.
And that's something.
To move things away from hell is something.
To move things away from the worst they can be is
well that's a noble goal in and of itself.
There's a lot of really good things going on in the world.
We had poverty,
absolute poverty,
between
the year 2000 and 2012.
Hundreds of thousands of people are being connected
to the power grid every day.
Fresh water is available not to fewer and fewer people
but to more and more people
and that's happening extremely rapidly.
Starvation in India and China
is a thing completely of the past,
you never hear about that.
And that's pretty much the case for the rest of the world
except now and then for political reasons.
You know everybody's got a cell phone
and anybody who doesn't is going to have one
in the next ten years
and that puts
in people's hands
a degree of communication and access
that would've been absolutely incomprehensible,
even,
fifteen years ago.
ALL THESE GOOD THINGS ARE HAPPENING
and just concentrating on this
polarization process that seems to have gripped us
in the West
seems counterproductive given all those good things
that are going on in the background.
Now that doesn't make what's going on in the West
trivial,
but it does set it inside a much more positive context
so that's something to keep in mind.
Freedom of speech,
the right to freedom of speech is central
because it's the right by which you defend
all the other rights.
Well, that's why the idea of Logos in the West
is the most sacred concept.
Christ -
think about this psychologically,
Christ -
IS THE IDEAL OF PERFECTION.
This is independent of any religious discussion
or any historical accuracy.
DOESN'T MATTER.
WHAT CHRIST REPRESENTS IS THE PERFECT
INDIVIDUAL.
Whatever that is.
Now, you
discuss endlessly what that is
but one of the things the West has settled on
IS THAT THE
PERFECT
INDIVIDUAL
UTTERS
THE TRUTHFUL
SPEECH
THAT MAKES POTENTIAL INTO HAPPENING MORE.
Does that prove truth?
That's embedded in the first few sentences of Genesis,
for example,
GOD BRINGS THE WORLD INTO BEING.
And the idea that
that truthful speech that brings the world into being
from formless potential
also characterizes each person
and that's
our fabrication in the image of God.
That's the idea of the West
it's an
unbelievably
remarkable idea.
That
perfection,
individual perfection, is to be found in relationship with
spoken truth.
God.
That's
THAT'S
THE
GREAT
IDEA.
Well,
it's out of that arises the
observation that
there's nothing more central to the hierarchy of rights
and obligations as well,
let's say,
than freedom of speech.
Yes,
it's absolutely central.
That's why Christ is the word made flesh,
the idea is that the perfect individual
is the person,
well, who speaks truth but also
acts out the truth of those words.
It's very -
It's a proposition whose merit is virtually self-evident
when you understand it in that manner.
So, yeah,
to see assaults on freedom of speech,
especially compelled speech,
well, that's where I drew the line
in my life.
It's like, that is the West
it's logocentric
if you want to take the West down
you
REMOVE THE IDEA OF THE DIVINE WORD
FROM THE SUBSTRUCTURE OF THE SOCIETY.
TO HAVE TO DO THAT -
AND THIS IS THE LEVEL AT WHICH THIS WAR IS BEING
FOUGHT.
IT'S FUNDAMENTALLY A THEOLOGICAL WAR.
Question:
I MARRIED YOUNG AND I'VE HAD ONLY ONE SEXUAL
PARTNER.
NOW, I DESIRE VARIETY BUT VALUE MY MARRIAGE
AND WILL NOT
CHEAT.
ANY INSIGHT ON OVERCOMING THIS CONFLICT?
As a matter of fact,
yes.
I would say
GET THE VARIETY WITH YOUR PARTNER,
you know,
there's lots of
games you could play
TO SPICE UP YOUR SEXUAL LIFE.
Buy some lingerie, like,
buy a hundred pieces,
you know.
Buy whatever you need
that you might want to experiment with.
You have to
introduce that spirit of pretend play,
that you had when you were a little kid,
into your sexual life
and then
you have
many partners in the same person.
Put some thought into it.
Sex is a domain in which expertise
can be developed
just like any other domain.
Some of that's play and fantasy play,
SOME OF IT'S SEXUAL TECHNIQUE.
And, I guess, then the other thing I would say is
take stock of each other and
see
if there are things that you can do in your life
that would make you more attractive to one another.
You know those are hard questions because no one
wants to say, well
you know, I'd be more attracted to my wife sexually if
she just
acted X way.
And the same with regards to a wife's contemplation of
her husband.
But,
THOSE ARE THE REAL QUESTIONS MAN.
If your partner isn't
acting in a manner
that is sexually attractive
then either there is something wrong with you
or there is something wrong with them.
Those harsh judgments that your sexual attraction
makes are also very useful ways of orienting yourself
towards proper behavior in the world.
Admit to the variety that you want
and see to what degree you can fulfill that
within the confines of the marriage.
It's also part of
COMING INTO CONTACT WITH THE
SHADOW,
I'd say, if you want to look at it from a Jungian
perspective.
You might have all sorts of sexual desires that
part of you feels should remain taboo
and
MAYBE THEY SHOULD.
I'm not
suggesting
absolute sexually libertine behavior.
MAYBE THEY SHOULD.
I know that sexuality has to be regulated very carefully.
MAYBE THEY SHOULD.
MAYBE THEY SHOULD.
You might be able to push yourself with some
time and effort and contemplation
and some admission of fantasy
and all of that
into
domains of sexual
satisfaction that you haven't
achieved before.
Before.
Before.
And then I try to do this in my therapeutic practice,
I try to do this all the time.
I want the best
for what wants the best in you,
it's like that part,
I'm that part's friend.
It's like I don't have unconditional positive regard.
I'm not on the side of you that's aiming at your defeat,
I'm not at all on that side.
I'm on the side of you that's struggling towards the light.
Right.
And I'm on the side of that part of me
at least I'm trying to be on the side of that,
and that's the definition of love.
And that's the definition of love,
by belief,
because what it means is -
but I said it,
I truly want the best for wants the best in you.
Yeah.
And people love that.
They love that man.
I'm trying to figure out what's the best
for us,
really,
the best,
not the best for me although that's part of it.
Because here I'm you know
and I'm in the game too
I'm so greedy, let's say, I don't just want the best for me
that's not enough for me
I'm too greedy for that,
maybe I'm too selfish for that.
I want the best for me in a way that's the best for
everyone else too,
because that's even better.
That's another interesting thing about being bounded by
death,
you have nothing to lose.
You might as well aim for the highest goal
because
what have you got to lose that you aren't already going
to lose?
NOTHING.
NOTHING.
And you have everything, hypothetically, to gain.
If you want to go to university and become a physician,
there's a lot of
sacrifice of impulsive gratification that goes along with
that.
But if you become a physician
then it's a noble enterprise,
people support you socially,
and all the needs that you need to have fulfilled will also
be fulfilled by that enterprise.
Well, that's a way better model.
Well, that's a way better model.
It's strange that the maximum freedom comes
with the adoption of a discipline and then
also the adoption of responsibility.
That frees you up and everyone else around you
in the long run.
And if you explain that to people,
especially in this day and age when they'd be fed
a never-ending diet of idiot rights and freedoms,
they are immediately on board with it,
because they know
and know that
most of the meaning that people experience in their
lives is a consequence
of adopting responsibility.
Adopting responsibility.
So,
they're starving for that.
Starving for that.
They're starving for that.
Idea to the articulate.
It's as if something like the following happened
as humanity developed -
first for the endless tens or hundreds of thousands
of years prior to the emergence of written history and
drama.
During this time the twin practices of delay and
exchange begin to emerge slowly and painfully.
Then they become represented in metaphorical
abstraction as rituals and tales of sacrifice
told
in a manner such as this,
IT'S AS IF THERE IS A POWERFUL FIGURE IN THE SKY
WHO SEES ALL -
IS JUDGING YOU.
Giving up something you value seems to make Him
happy,
but you want to make Him happy, because
all hell breaks loose if you don't.
(Ha.)
So,
PRACTICE SACRIFICE
AND SHARING
until you become expert at it
and things will go well for you.
No one said any of this,
at least not so plainly and directly,
but it was implicit in the practice
and then in the stories.
Action
came first,
as it had to,
as the animals we once were could act but could not
think.
People watch the successful succeed
and the unsuccessful fail
for thousands and thousands of years,
we thought it over
and drew a conclusion,
THE SUCCESSFUL AMONG US DELAY GRATIFICATION,
THE SUCCESFUL AMONG US BARGAIN
WITH THE FUTURE,
A GREAT IDEA BEGINS TO EMERGE,
taking ever more clearly articulated form,
EVER MORE CLEARLY ARTICULATED STORIES.
What's the difference between the successful
and the unsuccessful,
THE SUCCESSFUL SACRIFICE.
Things get better as the successful
PRACTICE THEIR SACRIFICES,
the questions become increasingly precise
and
simultaneously
broader -
what is the greatest possible sacrifice,
for the greatest possible good? -
AND THE ANSWERS BECOME INCREASINGLY DEEPER
AND PROFOUND.
The God of Western tradition, like so many gods,
REQUIRES SACRIFICE.
But sometimes He goes even further.
He demands not only sacrifice
but the sacrifice of precisely what is loved best.
We will start our analysis with a truism,
stark,
self-evident
and understated -
sometimes,
THINGS DO NOT GO WELL.
That seems to have much to do with the terrible nature
of the world -
with its plagues and famines and tyrannies,
AND BETRAYALS.
But here is the rub,
sometimes when things are not going well
it's not the world that's the cause,
the cause is instead
that which is currently
MOST VALUED
subjectively
and personally.
Why?
Because the world is revealed, to an indeterminate
degree,
through the template of your values.
Thus, if the world you are seeing is not the world you
want,
IT’S TIME TO EXAMINE YOUR VALUES.
It's time to rid yourself of your current presuppositions,
it's time
TO LET GO.
It might even be time to sacrifice what you love best,
so that you can become who you might become
instead of staying
who you are.
Something valuable given up ensures future prosperity.
Something valuable sacrificed
pleases the Lord.
What
is most valueable -
AND
BEST SACRIFICED.
Well, what is at least emblematic of that.
A choice cut of meat,
the best animal in a flock,
a most valued possession.
What's above even that?
What constitutes the ultimate sacrifice
for the gain of the ultimate prize.
It's a close race, between child and self.
The sacrifice of the mother, offering her child
to the world is exemplified profoundly
by Michelangelo's great sculpture,
Pietà.
Michelangelo crafted Mary cradling
the nearly naked body of her adult son
crucified and ruined.
IT'S HER FAULT.
It was through her that he entered the world
and its great drama of being.
IS IT RIGHT TO BRING A BABY INTO THIS TERRIBLE
WORLD?
Every woman asks herself that question,
some say "No" and they have their reasons.
Mary answers "Yes"
voluntarily, knowing full well what's to come.
As do all mothers if they allow themselves to see.
It's an act of supreme courage, when it's undertaken
voluntarily.
In turn, Mary's son, Christ, offers himself to God
and the world
to betrayal,
torture
and
DEATH.
To the very point of despair on the cross
where he cries out those terrible words -
MY GOD,
MY GOD,
WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?
That is the archetypal story of the man who gives his all
for the sake of the better,
who offers up his life for
THE ADVANCEMENT OF BEING.
Who allows God's will to become manifest fully within
the confines of a
SINGLE, MORTAL LIFE - THAT IS THE MODEL
FOR THE HONORABLE MAN.
In Christ's case, however, as he sacrifices himself
God, his father,
is simultaneously sacrificing
his
SON.
It is for this reason that the Christian sacrificial drama
of son and self is archetypal.
It's a story at the limit
where nothing more extreme,
nothing greater
can be imagined.
That's the very definition of archetypal -
and that's the core of what constitutes
religious.
Pain and suffering define the world -
of that,
there can be no doubt.
Sacrifice can hold pain and suffering in abeyance
to a greater or lesser degree.
And greater sacrifices can do that more effectively
than lesser -
of that, there can be no doubt.
Everyone holds this knowledge in their souls.
Thus, the person who wishes to alleviate suffering,
who wishes to rectify the flaws in being,
who wants to bring about the best of all possible
futures,
who wants to create heaven on earth,
will make the greatest of sacrifices -
of self and of child,
of everything that is loved,
to live a life aimed at the good.
He will forego expediency,
he will pursue the path of ultimate meaning
and he will, in that manner,
bring salvation
to the
ever
desperate
world.
Archetypal themes are archetypal because
they actually speak of the structure
of human experience.
That's why they last.
And human experience has a pattern.
You don't have the capacity to articulate that pattern
as an individual,
in part, because your life is too short.
You just can't figure it out.
But
the ancient representations of those patterns are
everywhere around you.
You know some of them in image.
You caught in on them automatically.
You fall into them if you go to a movie, for example,
because movies, always, express archetypal themes.
If you hear them articulated, you think:
"I knew that."
I knew that.
I knew that.
I knew that.
That's the Platonic idea
of learning as remembering.
Your soul already knows,
but it doesn't have the words.
And so
when people talk to me about
watching my lectures
they say one of two things.
A quarter of them say:
"When I listen to you talk
it's as if you're telling me things that I already know."
It's like yeah.
Well, that's exactly right because that's what
archetypal stories are.
They are the description of what you already know.
But,
that can be articulated and then
who you are,
and how you see yourself,
and the way you describe yourself
all become the same thing.
So, that's wonderful then you're not at odds
with yourself.
You're a functioning unity and that makes you much
stronger and more indomitable than you would
otherwise be.
And, then, the other thing that people say and this is
more like three quarters of them
is that
they say:
"I was in a very dark place."
"I was addicted."
"I was drinking too much."
"I had a fragmented relationship with my fiancé
and I wasn't getting married."
"Things weren't going very well with my family."
"My relationship with my father was damaged."
"I didn't have any aim."
"I was wasting my time."
Some variant of that.
Some combinations of those.
And they said:
"Well,
I've been watching your lectures
I've decided to establish a purpose.
I'm trying to tell the truth
and things are way better."
Let's say I've done, maybe eight or nine large-scale
public talks in the last two months,
twenty thousand people and about a third to half
of them have stayed afterwards to talk to me.
who have said that to me.
And then people stop me
on the street all the time and tell me exactly
that story which is just -
You can't imagine how good it is to be able to go to
places you've never been and to have people stop you
on the street.
Look my life is way better than it was.
I'ts like.
It's so good.
And I've got like, I don't know, thirty five thousand letters
from people.
More than that I can't keep track.
It's exactly the same thing.
A quarter of them say:
"You've given me the words to say what I already knew
was true
and thank you for that."
My father,
he's eighty-one.
I've put him in charge of
going through my viewer email,
which is an overwhelming job,
but
he's overwhelmed by the fact that so many people are
writing and saying the same thing:
"I have a purpose, man, my life actually matters.
I finally realize that, I'm putting it into practice.
I'm bearing up under the heaviest load I can imagine
and
it's really helping."
My god.
That's tens of thousands of
responses.
You couldn't
hope for anything better.
There's zero harm in it, right,
it's just people putting their lives together.
They're not mucking about with other people.
They're not trying to make broadscale social
transformations about which they have no idea.
They are trying to make
their immediate enviroment better
and it's working.
A journalist asked me why people are responding
so positively to what I'm saying the young men,
for example,
and I thought:
"That's a good question."
I'm actually on their side.
I'm really happy that they're
not wasting their lives.
I'm really sad to see that people
are disenchanted
and nihilistic
and depressed
and anxious
and aimless
and perverse
and vengeful
and all of those things it's terrible.
And then to see people question whether that's
necessary and then to start to rise out of it.
It's like.
It's so fun, like last night I was at.. after my talk -
It's overwhelming.
I don't usually think about these things
but I was after my talk last night and so all these people
line up.
You know they have their fifteen seconds with me
and they're kind of attentive.
They're excited and attentive when they come up to talk
to me.
And then they have, you know, fifteen seconds of time to
tell me something, I'm really listening to them
They're hesitant about whether or not to share
the good news about their life, you know, and I think it's
often because
when people share good news about their life
people don't necessarily respond
positively.
You know they don't get encouragement
and people need so little encouragement,
it's just unbelievable.
And so they will tell me something good,
and I think:
"God, that's so good."
You know somebody says:
"I'm getting along way better with my father,
I haven't seen him for ten years, and now we're getting
along."
It's like
god,
great.
And,
the power of that,
you can't overstate the power of that
for individuals to get their
life together.
The individual is an
unbelievably powerful force
and every single person
who gets their act together a little bit
has the capacity to spread that around them.
It's a chain reaction.
It's a chain reaction.
Human beings are weird creatures
because we're much more activated by
having an aim and moving towards it
than we are by attainment.
And what that means is
YOU HAVE TO HAVE AN AIM.
And that means you have to have an interpretation,
that also means that the nobler the aim
THE BETTER YOUR LIFE.
And that's a really interesting thing to know
because, you know, you've heard ever since you were
tiny that you should act like a good person.
You shouldn't lie, for example,
and you might think:
"Well, why the hell should I
act like a good person and why not lie?"
Even a three year old can ask that question,
because smart kids learn to lie earlier by the way.
Why not twist the fabric of reality
so that it serves your specific short-term need?
That's a great question.
Why act morally
if you can get away with something
and it brings you closer to something you want,
why not do it?
And these are good questions it's not self-evident.
Well,
you destabilize yourself and things become chaotic
that's not good.
That's not good.
And if you don't have a noble aim,
that's not good.
That's not good.
That
That's not good.
You have nothing but shallow,
trivial,
pleasures
AND THEY DON'T SUSTAIN YOU.
And that's not good.
Because life is so difficult,
it's so much suffering,
it's so complex,
it ends
and everyone dies
and it's
PAINFUL.
It's like, without a noble aim
how can you withstand any of that?
You can't.
You become desperate
and once you become desperate
things go from bad to worse very rapidly.
And so, there's the idea
of the noble aim.
It's something that's necessary.
It's the bread that people cannot live without, right,
that's not physical bread
it's the noble aim.
It's the noble aim.
And what is that?
Well,
it's to pay attention,
it's to speak properly,
it's to confront chaos,
it's to make a better world.
IT'S TO MAKE A BETTER WORLD.
Make a better world.
Make a better world.
It's to make a better world.
And that's enough of a noble aim so that you
can stand up without cringing at the very thought of
your own existence.
So that you can do something,
that's worthwhile to justify
your wretched
position on the planet.
We must avoid falling prey to the temptation
of identifying with the chaotic,
depressing,
anxiety-ridden,
and nihilism inducing
state of affairs
engendered
by the terrible confrotation with
the genuinely unknown.
Even when thrust into the underworld
by the dread events of our life,
we must not characterize ourselves as
permanent inhabitants of that dark and dread place,
lest,
we lose hope
despair
and seek revenge.
To progress,
psychologically,
you must let go,
sacrifice
time and again in the face of
successive obstacles you must abandon those things
that
and often those people who,
are impeding your progress
despite the fact that you may have held them very close
to your heart.
When you're wrong,
when you've missed the mark,
when you've sinned,
because that is the meaning of sin,
you must let the part of you that is wrong and aiming
improperly
DIE.
Then,
you must allow the new spirit manifesting itself within
TO SPRING TO LIFE.
That
new spirit,
that's the terrible information contained
in whatever error you've committed
in living conjuction with the, now,
transformed structures, you originally employed
to frame the situation.
That new spirit
it's a manifestation, as well,
of the potential within you
THAT HAD NOT YET BEEN CALLED FORTH
BY THE PREVIOUS TRAVAILS OF YOUR LIFE.
Christ is,
symbolically,
the way and the truth of life
and no one comes to the Father
except through him.
Embracing the process of voluntary death and rebirth,
that is identical with psychological development,
means
determining to move forward and upward
DESPITE THE HORNS OF LIFE.
It means as well,
symbolically speaking,
REJUVENATING THE DEAD FATHER
while rescuing Him from stagnation
and deterioration
IN THE ETERNAL UNDERWORLD.
We are all the slaves,
pharisees and lawyers,
of those who place dogma above spirit
AT THE COST OF SPIRIT.
We're all subject to betrayal
by ourselves and by all those who surround us.
We're all facing extinction
in the most torturous of manners.
But there is a spirit within us with sufficient courage
to confront the true horrors of existence forthrightly,
to allow the
transformation,
even
DEATH.
EVEN DEATH.
EVEN DEATH.
That such a confrontation catalyzes to occur
and to leap forward renew.
How is it that life might prevail
IN THE FACE OF
DEATH
AND HELL?
With arms open embracing its fate.
We are all fallen creatures
and we all know it.
We're all separated from what should be
and thrown into the world of death and despair.
We're all brutally crucified on the cross,
that is the reality of life itself.
To rebel against that fate merely worsens it,
transforming what could be near tragedy
into something
indistinguishable from hell.
To argue
bitterly
and despair
around the deathbed of a loved one
is to turn all the pain of death and loss into something
far worse.
To accept instead,
is that simultaneously to transcend?
It's certainly courage and truth and perhaps even love
AND THESE THREE FORCES ARE SOMETHING TO
BEHOLD.
Are they more powerful than despair and the desire for
vengeance?
That is the Christian suggestion.
And the Christian ?
TO ACT OUT THE PROPOSITION OF COURAGE
AND TRUTH
AND LOVE
ARE MORE POWERFUL THAN DEATH AND DESPAIR
and to accept what transpires
AS A CONSEQUENCE.
