It’s hard for me to write or talk openly about very private matters, and beliefs are very, very private for me. I feel afraid. My thoughts, when I go back over them, seem sometimes rather silly. Not very educated nor intellectual. I’m trying to get over that. When something strikes me a certain way, I want to remember it. I’m getting braver about saying I believe… even though I know many find will find it silly or ridiculous. It takes a lot of courage for me to say these things out loud – understanding that the internet is as out loud as I get.
There’s this movie that we’ve watched on several occasions. Each time I have nothing less than a spiritual awakening. The movie is The Straight Story. Richard Farmsworth (Matthew from Anne of Green Gables) plays the part of Alvin Straight who is making a trip ‘his way’ to see his estranged brother. It’s one of those heartwarming movies that makes you cry, smile and laugh all at the same time, and leaves you feeling uplifted for days afterward. But it’s much more than that for me.
Alvin is no-one important, at least by our culture’s measuring stick. He not well-educated, a common laborer, maybe not even the nicest man around. He admits he used to drink and he was mean when he drank. But his story, for me, is the epitome of human spirit.
We watched the movie this last weekend, and this time it finally dawned on me why this movie always leaves me feeling I’ve had a spiritual epiphany. It’s a movie about God. Alvin is on a pilgrimage – a pilgrimage to honor God, to honor the human spirit. That’s it. The human spirit, that something that can never adequately be described with words: the passion, emotion, conviction, courage, lust, desire, love, hatred, determination, that spirit. That is God. Human spirit is God. God is human spirit.
Have I just raised man to the level of godhood? Or have I lowered God to the level of manhood? Or is there any difference?
1 comment:
I don't really think there is a difference. We come here to this place of incarnation over and over again until we finally realize this. Then, we no longer have to come, unless we want to help others to find this truth. Then, when we come it is not so much to seek and find the Truth, but to be of service to others who seek. Sometimes, the being of service is in asking the questions out loud, and, wondering about the things that others are too afraid to utter....Thank you for choosing to be of service!
Post a Comment