Finding Meaning and Perspective

As a child at about the age of 10 or so, I recall thinking about etchings on the walls of caves and tried to imagine people struggling to making sense of their place in the world many years ago. I saw the type of artwork pictured above as something that came from an innate impulse that everyone, on some level, possesses.

Growing up in a Catholic family, I can recall the church’s teaching in my early education and hitting a mental speed bump when the instructing nun told us that the Catholic church was “the one true church.” “Hold on minute,” I said silently to myself. That doesn’t quite fit. Observing on the way to Mass and Sunday school, her bold statement didn’t jibe with the images I saw of neatly dressed families filing into the nearby protestant churches I’d pass on the way to our parish.

Decades later I felt moved to take a few seminary classes largely out of curiosity. It was illuminating for me to try to understand and appreciate what varied motivations were behind folks who were immersing themselves in religious education and spiritual exploration. I actually did really enjoy the many excellent books we were assigned, and I found the students, faculty and guest speakers to include some remarkable and captivating people.

In the mental health counseling work I do these days, I notice that folks come in with the full range of religious/spiritual experiences. Some, sadly, are trying to come to terms with religious experiences that have been deeply unsettling to them. Others have had no connection to organized churches yet many of them, as was quite possibly the case with the artist whose work is pictured above, have a very clear push within them to make sense of their existence and, in some way, find expression for that. I see part of my job as doing what I can to encourage that expression.

I once spent a long weekend once at a Buddhist monastery. I was struck by a comment the abbot made in one of his talks. He said, “It wouldn’t change my life one damn bit if they proved tomorrow that Buddha never existed!” Here was a guy that spent most of his adult life in his position there. The exploratory impulse springs from within.

Where am I going with all this? I’m suggesting that we all are designed to put our highly improbable existence in some kind of context that is meaningful to us. Not something that can be imposed externally. Modern life provides lots of distractions that can take us away from this developmental push but, nevertheless, the often-faint voice within us is never really silenced. (The “mute” button only works temporarily.) It persists no matter what we’re doing. It seems clear to me that respecting this both within ourselves and with those around us is a worthwhile pursuit.

Here’s to a pleasant New Years.