Poets through the centuries have penned sonnets and limerick's galore as well as everything in between capturing the mood, the hope, the expectation, that a new year can bring.
For every rhyming couplet of hope there is also an exposition of danger. Writers and thinkers over the aeons have also put word to the dangers each year is fraught with from Isaiah in the older religious writings, through Nostradamus and his predictions, right up to Gary on twitter who posted that the world is on fire.
The Rabbinical way of engaging the world has always appealed to me. Whenever I have asked a Rabbi a serious question about anything they are quick to answer and make no bones about it. But then they are also quick to change their mind...
"Rabbi Jones, I killed this guy..."
"Killing is forbidden by the laws of God, it is a sin to take away the life that God has given."
"I know...."
"On the other hand..." the Rabbi continues, "tell me about this man you killed - perhaps death was too good for him..."
I think it is incredible that most deep thought can hold opposing viewpoints. On the one hand killing is always wrong - on the other, some people need killing... (just in case you have never met me - I do not think anyone deserves killing - I am using an extreme example because this is the way of it. No matter how outside the norm a question is to a Rabbi, they will still be able to consider the other side, and I love them for that)
Now
I see everyone posting New Years Resolutions. I see all the New Years Blessings and Well Wishes.
And I agree with each and every one. We are all on a journey to fulfillment that winds its way through different valleys and over different mountain peaks for each individual. And the idea of a new start during the change of a year, or a decade, is amazing.
I also see that Australia is on fire. The United States, or some part of it, just risked another world war by illegally taking out half of Baghdad, people are still not listening to Greta Thunberg the way they should be, and believe it or not, before dawn on New Year's Eve 15 people had been shot to death by strangers in different locations in the United States.
And I agree with each and every one. We are all on a journey to fulfillment that winds its way through different valleys and over different mountain peaks for each individual. And the idea of a new start during the change of a year, or a decade, is amazing.
I also see that Australia is on fire. The United States, or some part of it, just risked another world war by illegally taking out half of Baghdad, people are still not listening to Greta Thunberg the way they should be, and believe it or not, before dawn on New Year's Eve 15 people had been shot to death by strangers in different locations in the United States.
Hope and Fear, Joy and Pain. Not to wax too eloquent, but one wonders if they are merely sides of the same coin?
I wonder if we started embracing this idea that there are many, many, many sides to everything if we would find our lot in life easier to bear?
It might be hard for us. We live in an age of extreme polarization. Wherever we look someone is yelling to us that we either see the world as black and white or we are the enemy.
It might be hard for us. We live in an age of extreme polarization. Wherever we look someone is yelling to us that we either see the world as black and white or we are the enemy.
Don't believe them.
And perhaps in this one act of rebellion, where we move away from believing we ever have the definitive answer for anything, we would find it to be enough to tip the balance of 2020 to being a place where we can find joy and pain and be okay with both.
There is literally no highway. There is literally no my way. All ways are paths to the centre. All ways spiral in and out of reality, of usefulness, of destination. All ways are valid for the person in the moment they are in.... It is all they know.
And yet... there is so much more....
May this be the year that we discover new paths and are okay with the fact that they are still not the right ones to be on...
And perhaps in this one act of rebellion, where we move away from believing we ever have the definitive answer for anything, we would find it to be enough to tip the balance of 2020 to being a place where we can find joy and pain and be okay with both.
There is literally no highway. There is literally no my way. All ways are paths to the centre. All ways spiral in and out of reality, of usefulness, of destination. All ways are valid for the person in the moment they are in.... It is all they know.
And yet... there is so much more....
May this be the year that we discover new paths and are okay with the fact that they are still not the right ones to be on...
