One of the pervasive problems with trying to do the right thing in the world is that sometimes you get what is right wrong. Motivated out of a particular conviction, acting in accord with a particular idea, its how we galvanize our moral actions.
But sometimes we get it wrong. Sometimes what we think is right is actually not, as we behave to shortsightedly, or pay too much attention to the big picture. In each of us now are warped beliefs about what is good, habits that prevent us from truly reflecting on the nature of the universe, and poorly fostered desires drawing us toward ill.
The fucker of it all is that it is really hard to figure out which ideas, habits, and desires lead us to good, and which lead us to the bad. Its hard to see past shortsightedness, as it were.
But all is not lost. The structure of our creeds and the movement of our intuitions may not always be true, be they can be improved.
A few starting points:
Pray. Pray in a way that makes your ideology vulnerable to love of the universe.
Learn. Learn in a way that makes your assumptions vulnerable to the truth of the universe.
Commune. Commune with those like you, and those apart from you.
Think. Think both tentatively and courageously.
Ask. Ask people you admire, and those you do not. Treat everyone as a teacher.
Feel. Feel around inside your soul for how you really feel.
Pray again.
Learn again.
Commune again.
Think again.
Ask again.
Feel again.
Pray one last time.
If you honestly, and I do mean honestly, move through these different modes of being in a way open to transformation, very often the warped aspects of our belief structures straighten, and our slumbering intuitions awaken. Now, you won't always get it right, but you will be moving in the right direction. Done regularly, you will grapple with ideas as they come into question, and over time you will find yourself slowly moving into a less warped sense of being.
You won't succeed the moment you start...
You won't always get right right...
But praying, learning communing, thinking, asking, and feeling are all done now.
Now.
Now is a fine time to start.
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What was the prayer that you gave at a recent youth event... I think either at the retreat reunion dinner or at the first radical ministry meeting. You read it to me, and I asked you to e-mail it. Did you ever post it? Certainly God plays a role in your writing, but actual prayer woven in is never a bad thing. Isn't it part of our fervor, or isn't our fervor really a prayer? Duplicitous, like some of my songs.
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