Remaining the Same
On a different day...
The More Things Change…
…the more they remain the same, because life is cyclical. The other part of this concept is that history repeats itself, and the learning curve says if we don’t pay attention to history, we are doomed to repeat it, and on and on…..
Human beings think in terms of linear time. Which is not a bad thing, because our lives are lived with a beginning, and middle and an end. Just like any story. The difference being, we know the ending of a story. Living, however, is a mystery. You do not know when the ending is here until it is upon you. Along the way, you don’t know what’s around the next corner.
Life is the mystery we try to figure out.
Some religions state that everything has been predetermined. God knows all. Before it happens. That would makes us automatons, with birth being nothing more than the wind up. We then keep going until we wind down.
What, then, is the purpose of religion? Exactly what, if we’re following a script, are we to be saved from? Bad writing?
I do not think, for one split second, that humanity is created as an actor. Humanity is a reactor, and perhaps, that is the experiment? We are supposed to evolve? To learn from our foibles, to move up more than ahead. That’s where the cycles come in, as each death scoops up each birth, to propel the circles up. The mission being to remove ourselves from the darkness and go up to the light.
My Gnostic beliefs are showing. On the other side, I know we cannot know what is next, until the great cosmic clock indicates our time is up, and then we experience that new form of life for ourselves.
The question now being, does the change in status, from biological/spirit life, to purely spirit life, actually reform us? Or will we remain the same?
Our Earth has had quite the history, from its own birth, out of the womb of the nebula, to the planet we live on today. Astronomers indicate that, so far, there are no other planets like this one. That we are alone. This piece of information can make us feel alone. It can also make us feel arrogant. That we are special.
Thinking we are special is dangerous. Thinking we have a place in the general scheme of things is a good idea, because it forces us to reach outside of ourselves, to discover who we are and where we belong. We moderns have the luxury of taking this inward journey because our survival rate is quite good. Evidence for that is the present population of the world. We have nearly 8 billion individuals hanging around, we’ve just come through a pandemic, and we still have nearly 8 billion people hanging around.
See what I mean?
The point I am dragging you to, is that ideas resurface among humanity, constantly, and we think they are new stuff. That as moderns, we think we have come up with some new concept, but when the idea is examined, we discover we have been there and done that. Ergo, that is what is meant when it is said we repeat history. Because history cannot be repeated exactly as it was before. There is only one Pearl Harbor event. What happens is that old ideas become new again. Here’s what I mean.
There can be much talk about end of times, and humanity returning to a more primitive state. For example, the fall of civilization could drag us back to become hunter-gatherers. Something huge would have to happen to get us to that state of existence. Something like a large space rock hitting the Earth. That would mean an awful time of transition would take place. Which would change us inwardly. Firstly, finding food would become the number one order of each day. Because food sources would also be killed off by such an event. I don’t talk solely of protein sources, but also of plant sources. Truly, those left alive would be incredibly lucky, and cursed, simultaneously. And, by this return to a primitive lifestyle, those who had studied the past would recognize it. Inwardly, the change would be huge, and outwardly, there would be change as well. Surviving would be our number one priority.
I was motivated to write this essay after a discussion I had with someone who is close to me. He turned vegan last year. He preached his new religion to me. I was amused because all I could see was this is the same shit on a different day. For when I was a young woman, it was all about being a veggie, aka, vegetarian. And ending the Viet Nam war. Plus, living in peace and harmony, generally speaking. Well, what is wrong with wanting human beings to stop killing one another? Vegans want to stop killing animals.
The next question becomes, will the animals get the memo and stop killing each other? Will the lion lay down with the lamb, to rest, and not to eat it? Will a diet of processed plants heal the planet?
It’s not the diet. It’s the decision that each individual has to make. To stop participating in death and destruction. And yet this is the same item on a different day, that
many humans have attemtpted to deal with. That our planet is full of death. And death is a necessary part of life.
My parents fought WW2 to stop the evil, and their parents fought the war to end all wars. Do you see how this works? We keep fighting wars, not only the shooting sort, but on drugs, on poverty, attempting to be loving and inclusive and giving people everything they want, and yet. The more we change the more we remain the way we were before. Because, in reality, we do not change.
The Divine has sent us amazing prophets and sent the Logos, to give us clues on how to extricate ourselves from this, seemingly, endless cycle of repeating our stupidities. What I have learned is balance is key. And hypocrisy is the gravest of sins.
The universe is so big we can never comprehend it, but we can build our knowledge to get off this planet and go exploring. Because when we explore our universes, we explore ourselves. We can be human beings that create a new way of life, and begin a new cycle. What that will look like, is unknowable. Nonetheless, combining the wisdom of our age, with what must be out there…well now. I say we give it a go.