  Spiritual
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The World Trade Center is a living symbol of man's dedication to world peace... a representation of man's belief in humanity, his need for individual dignity, his beliefs in the cooperation of men, and, through cooperation, his ability to find greatness.
Minoru Yamasaki
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This week, in a time of remembering of the events of September 11, 2001, I’ve found that it’s been hard to come up with a topic for this newsletter. I spent the past week talking to random people, asking what was on their minds spiritually. I admit – I was hoping to find a topic in the conversations – but I was surprised to find that everyone was rather quiet. Each mentioned that if I needed something to write about, all I had to do was turn on the TV.
So, I did. I’m not a big TV fan, so I changed from news channels to documentary series shows. I watched nearly every special I could find, even one on how the World Trade Center collapse perfectly mimicked a volcanic eruption. Even after all that, I was still unsure of what was on my mind. I was unsure of what to say.
Other than this overwhelming sense of sadness, the only thought that kept repeating was this:
It is very dangerous to be absolutely sure of something.
No matter what a person believes, if they believe it so strongly that they cannot see other views, not only does the human connection break down but a breeding ground for hate and anger is also created.
Some may argue with that point. They may say that it is a blessing to have a faith that strong in something. That being able to believe without doubt is a luxury not many of us have. I could agree with that if I could see that a person arrived to their conclusion after examining all the facts before them after a lifetime devoted to learning.
I recently finished the book As a Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg. It is the tale of a Rabbi who went out into the world to study in order to find a way to prove his faith mathematically. In the end, he finds that not even the precepts we base our faith on can be proven. That when we list the things we know for sure, we really don’t know much at all.
I found that when I read the book, I felt compassion for him and also wondered at myself – I wondered if learning simply raised more doubts. I wondered momentarily if it would all be better if we were as ignorant as newborns and simply believed what we were fed. It may be easier… but when I think about it, I can’t believe that it would make life any better. I may have the heart of a scholar, but I believe all knowledge is worth having and that our faith can actually fall apart at the smallest chink in the armor if we don’t have layers upon layers of learning to back it up.
When it comes to religious extremism – and every religion has its extremists – I find the followers much to be like teenagers who are absolutely sure they have the world figured out. They think they are invincible and are willing to make decisions that can shape them forever on very little information and nothing more than raw emotion. This kind of arrogance that disappears as we age and turn into adults is also the kind of tempering a believer needs in their faith. As we mature, we learn to listen to others and think about what they say. We learn to have compassion for other people. We understand that we are not the center of the universe and that other lives mean just as much as our own. We lose the need to fight for every perceived slight. We don’t get angry about not being able to convert people but become content to sow a seed of knowledge and kindness.
When I think about it this way, I realize that the point of winning or losing this “war” does not really matter. When we count the tallies and survey the world and how it has changed – each one of us has lost deeply and each one of us has won something precious. The only control we have now is how we shape our spheres of influence and make our own little center of the world a little less extreme.
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Spiritual: September 13, 2006 Issue [#1266]
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