Words, windchimes, outer space

Despite the grounding of self-awareness, the people that spin past your periphery will inform how you interpret so much of your experience in the human context. We are an intuitive species, like every other, but that is easy to forget as we move through the evolution of communication. Words have more power than is generally acknowledged these days. How they are used can warp or elevate a message, and how we experience those words can be the foundation of expectation, as well. The word "spirituality" is a prime example. I do not like to inhabit many of the biases that surround words, but even I am subject to a knee-jerk reaction to that one. Spirituality for me triggers connotations of cultural blurring with a presumptive slant. Dreamcatchers and mantras and totems via New Age gift shops steeped in incense. Ethereal music (plucked sitars, echoing flutes, the occasional punctuation of a shimmery windchime). Crowds of retirees in loose Eastern garb doing Tai chi on the well-groomed lawn of some public park.

I've always felt a vague uneasiness toward those implications, and have kept my distance from discussion of "spirituality" because of that discomfort. It is a shame to me that I am subject to that interpretation of a perfectly functional word. "Spirituality" did nothing to deserve my wariness. I'm really not sure why I have a problem with people seeking some measure of peace through practices that have endured through the centuries. Well, I suppose I have some idea- the modern portrayal of these old ways smacks of commercialization, and the only way I keep the dignity of those practices in mind is to engage in them very quietly. Still, I need to make my peace with the people who dive into these ways with exuberance. That sort of energy is nigh impossible to sustain, and I'd like to be glad for them while they inhabit it. I need to remember the quiet that I prefer to dwell in, and let those people wheel above me on their dizzy spirals. I want to be treading the same middle ground when they plunge back down to earth and reassess.

So. The reading. (Bet you thought I'd forgotten. Well, yes, I did). This reading appealed to me in a very settled sense. The material was far-reaching and provocative, but the author's voice struck a very friendly chord in me. His simultaneous respect and skepticism for Huston Smith was a welcome balance, and I appreciated the deliberate honesty with which he approached the material at hand. I was also very drawn to Smith's celebratory stance on religion. I do not subscribe to a particular faith, as I've said here before, but I very much enjoyed the warmth of Smith's embracing perspective. He did not isolate or alienate, though religion has been a consistent excuse to do just that throughout history. I also appreciated his emotional response to science, and complete willingness to examine that emotion. It is very easy to hang onto your reactions and never look at them from another facet of perspective. Lately I've been thinking about the concept of wisdom and its presence in all stages of life (far beyond the wise old elder caricature). Smith's wisdom is a very comfortable sort, for me. Lofty wisdom is another thing I associate with commercialized spirituality (guided retreats to Eastern temples, etc) but I don't think it will ever have the resonance of a bright and humble awareness.

I don't know if I've said this before, but a friend used to send my philosophical ramblings, and eventually I told him that to think about how we are living is intoxicating and can lift us to trembling transcendence...but if you go out on a night when there are few clouds and look up, the stars will shake you down to stillness in their indifferent endurance. When you are dizzy with the cognitive high of pure thought, go out and look up. That is all I feel I need right now. Beyond the boundaries of words and what we do with them, we are still existing. Look at that. Just look at it. Eventually you will go back inside and slip back into a more nearsighted and comfortable state of being, and that is good, too.