Angels R4U - grace, love, and hope for the lost and the found
“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.” ~ T.H. White, The Once and Future King
I recently discovered T.H. White when a dear friend visited and gave me the book H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. White is discussed throughout her memoir as a fellow falconer and writer, and he is the author of “The Sword In the Stone,” the first book of four in The Once and Future King. Most of you will know the story from the Disney film, where Merlin teaches Arthur the power of love, kindness, and knowledge in preparation for his destiny as king.
Merlin hopes to give young Arthur the ability to reason and think for himself, so when he becomes king he won’t continue with the status quo. Merlin helps him to learn about humanity and the ways of society so he can make the world a better place.
If only we all had a Merlin to help us along with the learning process. Someone to guide us in good faith and be our beacons of light. That way we could dispel with the election blues. We could figure out exactly what to do amidst the horrible status quo.
As author C. JoyBell C. writes, “The only way that we can live, is if we grow. The only way that we can grow is if we change. The only way that we can change is if we learn. The only way we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way that we can become exposed is if we throw ourselves out into the open. Do it. Throw yourself.”
Sounds risky, doesn’t it?
Learning is a process. It begins with an open mind. But instead of openness to opposing ideas and views, I see the intellectual equivalent of windows slammed shut and doors bolted. Online, in every nook and cranny of the web, in social media and comments in blogs and electronic newsmagazines and newspapers, the status quo is ripe with ignorance. An unkind, biased, and fear-filled self-imposed disregard for learning what both sides of this presidential debate involve.
Years ago a friend informed me as she stood at my kitchen door, “I couldn’t be friends with a (insert party name). They’re too stupid.” This resonates even stronger today as I witness the lack of willingness to listen and learn.
“Learn why the world wags and what wags it” and find your way through the tangle of lies, fearmongering, and finger pointing. Yes, everyone thinks they already know. But, as Einstein said, “Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”
Still, I would wager we don’t know, let alone understand. Most of us are feeding ourselves from the fountain of knowledge that pours out exactly what we want to hear. Every nuanced, practiced, partisan piece of cleverly constructed narration filtered through eyes and ears that choose only to learn what we already believe.
One of the best places to witness this is Twitter, where friend and foe alike battle it out in forty characters or fewer, gleefully reaping the disdain of fellow tweeters with their accusatory remarks. Here is where you’ll find rampant “honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds.”
Not everyone, of course. Some of us try and appeal to what little kindheartedness remains in hearts that are barred with heavy gates of self-selected truths. Some of us attempt to remain open to the whole story in order to determine how best to choose.
Carefully. Very carefully, in case you hadn’t noticed. Many are struggling with the decision of who to vote for. Yet people will incarcerate you for being undecided. Critiquing one candidate is taken as an endorsement of the other. Pose a third-party option and both parties proclaim it’s a vote for the opposing side. Questioning anything will land you in the front lines in a partisan-dug foxhole. That’s where learning gets you should you dare to speak.
But quietly, in stealth mode, you can throw yourself out there, learn something from a leading writer, an esteemed theologian, a respected colleague—someone who challenges your perspective. Make a truly informed decision. Keep questioning.
You might find answers that will surprise you. You might have to wait. But don’t close the door. Learning is a process, remember?
“I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
What a different society it would be if we chose to live with the questions, reserving no judgment, making choices without fear of condemnation. We probably wouldn’t have the deeply flawed candidates that we have. Maybe we’d have something better than this two-party system that is failing us. We’d be able to find common ground despite our differences and disagreements.
Be surprised. Go learn something today. Be kind. Be generous. Be a Merlin and help someone learn, if you dare.
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