01
The more serious something gets, the more absurd it becomes. The Right To Life movement has proven itself to be unworthy of the title by embracing Donald Trump and allowing him to kill as many people as he wants as long as he makes abortion punishable by death. "We know he is a snake, but he will make abortion illegal-- and anything else he wants to do is fine with us!" The position is absurd, and deadly serious. We live on a continuum between serious and absurd, and have to strike a balance between being serious enough without being too outlandishly absurd. Life in the extremes is untenable, no matter what the continuum connects. "Live toward the center!" is the wisdom wrung from the ages. "Back to the center!" is the lesson every generation learns the hard way, because extremes beget extremes, and no one knows where the center point is until well after it is past. We find the center by moving back to it, not by realizing where it is when we are there. We are always looking for the center, though we do not often realize what we seek. Joseph Campbell said, "That which you seek lies far back in the darkest corner of the cave you most don't want to enter." That would be the center he is talking about. Particularly the center of ourselves. The heart, soul and source of our own being. Knowing who we are in a "This is who I am, and this is what I stand for, and this is what is most important to me, and these are my gifts, my genius, my daemon, my spirit, my virtues, my character, my values, my vitality, my energy, my life-- and who are you?" kind of way. Knowing who we are, and being who we are, in relationship with others who are knowing who they are and being who they are, with mutual respect and concern, acceptance and compassion, in recognizing and embracing our differences and allowing them to be is the sine qua non of community, and the single most essential requirement for living together in ways that honor everyone's right to be who they are at the expense of no one else's right to be who they are. Robert Frost observed, "Good fences make good neighbors." Knowing where we stop and our neighbor starts is essential knowing. Respecting/honoring the differences that set us apart, makes possible the attitude toward each other that holds us together, and makes life all it can be for every one. If the only way we can live together is for you to do it like I do it, or for me to do it like you do it, we won't be able to live together for very long. Honoring our right to be different makes life possible for us all.
