The Humble Reasoning of a Single Man

THE AUTHORITY OF A THOUSAND

                                IS NOT WORTH THE HUMBLE REASONING OF A SINGLE MAN

                                                                                                                         ---  Galileo

A few years ago I heard Paul Harvey tell a story that went kinda like this: Once there was a man (who we'll call Bob) who walked to work every day. One morning he noticed a GOING OUT OF BUSINESS sign on the watch repair shop. He went in to ask why. The elderly proprietor said, "My wife and I are growing older, and we wish to spend our remaining years with family and friends. We are moving back home to Germany." "You will be sorely missed," said Bob. "You see, it is my job to blow the mill whistle at exactly 7 o'clock every morning. For thirty years I have set my watch by the grandfather clock in your window because it is always accurate." "Das ist funny," said the German. "Every morning for thirty years I have set that clock to the mill whistle!"

For me, this story has become an anecdote (allegory? parable?) for what I call the Artificial Herdings of Man. Humans form groups outside of family and neighbors, pooling together along the lines of common bonds, for no other reason than to bolster each other's feelings and ideas. We seem to be ashamed to stand alone. We like to think we are unique, but we always feel a vague feeling of unease until we find others who agree with us. ("Am I crazy, doc?" "Yes, you are crazy." "Thank god! All my life I thought there was something wrong with me!")

But each person IS unique! Born with our own energy configuration, as unmatched as our own DNA, causing us to have our own ideas, our own views, our own needs, our own wants, our own qualia, our own relationship and understanding of the He/She/It/They that brought us into being and put us into the existence we happen to find ourselves. No two people are alike. No two people CAN be alike. The closest we can come is: "That's exactly how I feel....almost....kinda.....sorta." That's why reading for spirituality is like hitchhiking to hell, catching a ride with anyone who happens to be going your way. (Last week I caught a ride with U.G. Krisnamurti. Oooh, lord, that man can drive! What a ride!!!")

The Powers That Be are very aware of the powerful urges of our herd instinct. And we are led around like chihuahuas on a leash. Even those of us who are somewhat awakened to the shenanigans of madmen are hard pressed to remain balanced and neutral at all times. Most of us don't even try. We tiptoe merrily through the tulips of our personal Lala Land, ecstatic beyond measure that we agree, and are agreed with, never fully understanding that agreement does not make us right, no more than disagreement makes us wrong.

Few of us are capable of independent thought. We mix and match bits and pieces of other people's ideas in the height of Wal-Mart fashion, and have the gall to call that Wisdom. Even our religions are conglomerates: 'Do As Thou Wilt', occasionally tempered with 'As Long As Ye Harm None', all mixed up with 'God Is Good God Is Great', a handful of 'Forgive Me For I Have Sinned', and a little 'Kill The Infidel' thrown in for good measure! But we must have someone to blame in case we end up on the wrong side of hell....... blind leaders of the blind are always in vogue. Of course, it is not their fault that they end up as just another tentacle of the mega rich elite. After all, we put them there.... one donation at a time.

"Man is mortal god, God is immortal man." That sentiment is not new; it was written 20 centuries ago in the Corpus Hermeticum. And Seneca wrote in the first century AD: “Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.” Whether our beliefs are "old and simple and naive and evil as hell", or part of the New Age fluff, we are still just part of a herd... easily controlled, manipulated, and stampeded as our handlers see fit.

Like a spiritual Peter Principle, each of us is free to rise to our own level of divine misunderstanding, to map our own Unknown, and to use that knowledge as we see fit, to interact with our own misperception of reality.

Playful, infectious, self replicating .....new ideas are emissaries of God.

Larry