Part of the difficulty I had with divesting my predilections to
believe
in and to explain and to understand not just
living
but everything, is I was taught to do all three. They
constituted
the greatest heft of my education. Arguably when they were
presented,
the three weren't directed at
living
itself. To be fair,
believing
was mostly directed at the
religious
experience, explaining was mostly directed at abstractions like
mathematics, and then understanding was mostly directed at
scientific phenomena. Also to be fair, those are the appropriate
domains for them. But somehow I made
living
itself into an appropriate domain for the three of them
too -
mea culpa.
Arguably you couldn't be a priest without touting
belief,
and nor could you be a mathematician without touting explanation.
And you couldn't be a scientist without touting understanding. But
as far as simply being
alive
on
the planet
goes ie as far as being a being
living
on
Earth
goes, none of the three are required for me to be full, whole,
complete,
and vibrantly
alive.
This axiom took me (much to my chagrin) way too long in its
discovery.
Just like the front and the back of the hand, being and
action
are distinct yet inseparable. There's really no line between them.
To be
alive
is to be in
action.
To be in
action,
given we're
alive,
requires no
belief,
explanation, or understanding. Once you get this, there's
nothing
left to do but be in
action
ie there's
nothing
left to do but do. I've done all the
believing
and explaining and understanding I'm ever going to do.
None of it is required - even though the greatest heft
of my
well-intended
education says it is. Now I've got
nothing
left to do but do.
One of the great opportunities (if not the greatest
opportunity) in life is the opportunity to share being with
the world.
It may
work
better to say "one of the greatest opportunities in life is the
opportunity to share ... period" because (you
may say) "being with
the world"
adds not only limitation but also ulterior motive. Extraordinary
experiences call for extraordinary sharing. Being doesn't work if
you keep it to yourself. When you get it, you're called to share it
- or you didn't get it in the first place.
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