What’s Going On – Part 2
So here’s the conversation I will always remember. Kyle was hanging out on my lunch period talking about card tricks. He asked me once again if I’d show him how I did a fairly complicated trick that I had stumped him with for years. This day I finally relented. I showed him the moves one by one. With my explanation I unraveled the miracle and stripped away the mystery. What had seemed fascinating and entertaining to him for years became nothing more than a couple false shuffles, a little misdirection and some well timed patter. In the end, of course, there simply was no magic.As soon as I revealed the trick he said something like, “Man, that seemed so cool before, but now there’s nothing there.”
I thought I had given him a secret—something I had shared with no one else. Instead of being grateful he was disappointed. He acted like I took something from him.
“That seemed so cool before.” The statement of his remorse echoes in my mind now. I hear it again often, whenever I, my friends, colleagues or family members catch a glimpse of the reality behind the illusions of life.
“Nothing’s there.” But that was where I disagreed. I was 37 years old then and I’d been doing card tricks for over 30 years. I probably did that particular trick for almost a decade. He found out the secret and felt like there was nothing left. I knew the secret and still enjoyed it thoroughly.
On my bike ride that morning that was the insight that finally broke through. It was like my eyes were opened to what’s going on. I saw us all somewhere scattered in a continuum from amusement to enlightenment. It’s in amusement where most of us live our lives, especially those of us in developed countries, where we have never spent much time concerning ourselves with survival. We are easily sedated with superficial distractions and entertainments. They are illusions of joy and peace and we tire of them quickly. We fear facing that fact. Like Kyle, who saw the card trick for what it was, we first experience emptiness in the light of the truth. Our glimpses past the illusion reveal boredom and things far less tantalizing than the little marvels we afford with our leisure time and easy credit. Rather than looking hard for something on the other side we look for another amusement.
But it is a great hope that with work we can find something real on the other side. It’s hard work and so much inside of us wants to avoid it. Kyle could have practiced that trick like I did, mastered the moves and pulled it off the mystery in front of his friends and someday made his own children laugh with it. He could have found the satisfaction of knowing the truth and still enjoying the reality.
The card trick is an imperfect analogy of this truth, but it served to wake me up. I now see the same thing going on everywhere and I believe it explains so much of our maladies—everything from our relationships to our empires. We were created to live with a true, deep sense of reality. We are broken, though, and we are always distracted by our drive for convenience. Here in the 21st century we have nearly mastered the art of amusement. While the signs of its emptiness are clearer than ever, it’s also harder than ever to get out. Only an intense effort to face and forge through our initial disillusionment will carry us through to clarity.
While I struggle too, often resting comfortably in a cocoon of shallow illusions, I do want to experience that which is life indeed. I do want to see more clearly. I press on slowly. I find strength in the words of those who walk with me and of those who call me farther along from far up ahead.
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13, 14
No comments:
Post a Comment