Ashes, Snow and Dust

Marked with ashes today, I came home and read some good things, eg. John F. Kavanaugh's brief article "Try the Asceticism of Truth" in America, the Jesuit magazine.  I fully agree with his assertion that "...spiritual wisdom...tell(s) us that asceticism of the ego ... is more important..." because just giving up things can still leave us "radically self-centered or deluded." 


And then I remembered a wonderful  2006 exhibit at the Santa Monica Pier:  Ashes and  Snow. It was housed in "the nomadic museum", a  56,000 square-foot  temporary structure constructed of 152 steel cargo containers, stacked 34 feet high.  The setting, the photographic prints and the 35mm film were wonderful and very unique.  The artist, Gregory Colbert, admirably creative.


So today I am reminded that the senses need to be fed and starved, or at least moderated.  And ashes, snow and dust don't last.  And the mythological flying elephants, too heavy for their wings, do indeed fall to earth and transform into a beautiful mountain range.  


Perhaps  the website and images at ashesandsnow.org  can still be accessed.  I will try it. (Though I do have a few cherished cards from the exhibit, maybe a friend will take a look.)  And now, I'll keep striving for a sound and realistic perspective on persons, places and events. Otherwise, I'd waste the potential this day of ashes holds when it urges reflection on the stages of life, the meaning of life, and the wisdom early Christian hermits imparted: "Memento Mori."

Incongruities

I'm struck, with an almost blunt force trauma impact, by the wildly inconsistent thinking apparent in a single day or week or month of reported current events.  True, there is always going to be a gap between our potential and actual ability to grasp and really hold onto the truth (and to reality). But evidence of mental carelessness, superficiality and plain old sloppiness sure mounts up fast these days!  


One of the more astonishing things I witness is backpeddling or running-in-place by myself, another or the  supposed movers and shakers out there. Admittedly, speeding backwards is a tricky (and futile) way to workout, and highly counterproductive: it burns rubber but nothing else.  Everyone knows you cannot reduce an ounce of body fat by simply reading the labels, or stay sober by just thinking about it, or win the lotto without spending a buck.


So what can be done to realize our potential as consistent, logical human beings, actually capable of figuring out what adds up, or even what goes into the plus and minus columns?  Clearly, it's not always reducible to a bunch of numbers.  But it isn't necessarily as complex or incomprehensible as an algorithm. (I will never understand algorithms.) The core  solution may be abandoning our preconceptions, our robot-like mental processes, our shyness or habitual aversion to taking a new look or looking from a new perspective.  


Every genius philosopher, theologian, artist or great leader faces down their fear of being wrong sometimes.  Their courageous inventiveness benefits us all, and because they dare to ask hard questions and explore the edges of what they and we already grasp, they really do open up new, wonderful frontiers.  In the field of ethics, we are indebted to those who grapple with previously unimaginable scientific or medical realities instead of sticking their heads in the sand and smothering themselves. In theology, the wisely courageous application of timeless spiritual values to real-time lives reinvigorates belief.  In art, creativity stuns us and beauty pitches us beyond the banal and common pursuits that swallow up our  narcissistic, self-involved, consumer-driven existences.


Nevertheless, it is okay to shrink from the risks and  incongruities that threaten or puzzle us as long as we remember that these challenges can be catalysts. We really must act to avert traumatic tunnel-vision and, paradoxically, unite to minimize the idiocies of mob mentalities, secular or "religious." Whatever we can legitimately do to emasculate those Good Old Boy's Clubs or broaden the vision of Single Issue extremists (on the Left and the Right) would certainly be stepping towards a place where we can all get along in one world - effectively repudiating the backbreaking craziness paralyzing and decimating our famous muscle beach.

Unfinished Business?

It's good to be reminded, like the children we all are, to clean up our mess.  But even when I am mindful of the scriptural alerts Jesus often gave, my unsustained spurts of energy usually result in negligible progress. The tricky and hard part, is sustained effort.  And also, at least for me, the ability to shift gears, something I do more easily in my '89 Isuzu Trooper than in everyday life.  The unfinished business of life never gets completely done, but I'm hoping for a calm last breath rather than a grudging last gasp! I know it is possible; I have seen it.


We certainly should watch and pray, lest the end of our journey comes  as unexpectedly and perhaps as unwelcome as a thief in the night.  Yet somehow it seems that only imminent, enormous, life-changing and repeated loss is what it takes to sustain the clean-up effort.  Are we slow learners or what? Why live on the edge of known hazardous waste sites?  But we all do it.  Perhaps it's that gnawing need for instant gratification? Perhaps we know it's something else. 


Well, today I got another incentive to keep at my task of cleaning, shredding, tossing, donating, selling and effectively downsizing the "stuff" of my life:  Another classmate is undergoing chemo, another politician is vying for a place in the sun (at any cost), the very poor are still discounted and discarded, the 1% shamelessly flaunt their lust for power, and time marches on. There is plenty of upside-downness in every age, but keeping one's equilibrium seems particularly challenging these days.  I know there will always be poor people, greedy people, evil people, hypocritical people and good people, even really holy people. Therefore, the rush of life need not overwhelm me completely, but it will unless I watch and pray that it won't. 

Algorithms and Digital Identity

In wonder and concern about my carbon footprint, I recently realized that this is apparently not enough.  I must also consider my digital footprint and digital identity.  So now I'm really in trouble: I have become curious about algorithms, the kind that have been such good tools for FaceBook's Mark Zuckerberg!  What exactly is an algorithm?


I doubt that I'll ever get a handle on much of anything  that might educate me about algorithms because anything more than the most basic math is beyond me. (And here I am just assuming that we're dealing with some kind of esoteric mathematical formulations.) But I think I have a loose grip on the carbon footprint / digital footprint concepts. Maybe.


We really have both, right, carbon and digital? That seems obvious. So here's what else I know: I am going to find out more, one way or another, and see what I can make of it all. Then I suppose it'll be time for a plan.  Stay tuned!