the tiny revolution: a pie called humble

the tiny revolution: a pie called humble: After living back in Germany for over one year, you realize that something is different about the people. It is something I couldn’t put i...

a pie called humble

After living back in Germany for over one year, you realize that something is different about the people. It is something I couldn’t put into words. When you live in another country and take interest in other cultures…and observe their society, their way of life and interaction with each other…then you slowly forget what your ‘own’ people are like.

It has always been difficult for me to embrace my ‘German-ness’ – whatever significance that may or may not carry. The German, however, for all his strengths, also keeps plenty of weaknesses tucked under his bed. From what I have experienced, the German does not like to appear ‘weak’. This thought occurred to me the other day when my lovely wife pointed out that German women seemed so self-assured…so determined and driven. Outright. Direct. To the point. Independent. From A to B. Don’t bother looking past B, taking a peak at what C could be.

We came to the conclusion that there is a distinct lack of a certain attribute in the German (man). Personally, I took an interest in the matter and researched it.

The German has his roots steeped in the barbarism of the Germanian Man, a people made up of several tribes and dialects – ruthlessly cruel in the eyes of the Romans during their empirical expansion. The Germanic people were mainly pagans until the Medieval period and the Christianization. It was a polytheistic worldview, much like that of the early Greeks.

Therefore it’s fitting (or ironic) that hundreds of years later, in 1517, it would be a German who opposed and defied the Highest Religious Order of the time, the Roman Catholic Church under Pope Leo X and Emperor Charles V. Supposedly it was due to Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible, that the word ‘Demut’ was born into the German language.

‘Demut’ is the equivalent to ‘humility’, but the actual work has Germanic roots. It means the ‘conscience of a servant or someone who serves’. Thus, being humble means to take the status of a servant, consciously – choosing to serve. At the same time, there is the verb ‘demütigen’, which is the equivalent of ‘humiliate’. In German, the noun ‘Demütigung’ is not a positive word. Neither is it in English. ‘Mut’ also means ‘Courage’, so ‘demütigen’ is to discourage somebody…take away his courage. Moreover, ‘Demütigung’ is about forcing somebody into the embarrassing situation of misunderstanding his place…to put someone in his ‘right’ place would be the better expression here.

This is because to humble oneself one often needs an experience of some sort. The fault in man (or humanity) lies in his arrogance to think that one individual stands higher than another. Jesus, the son of God, came down to earth as a servant-king. Not a king-servant. David served Jerusalem as a king-servant. Jesus didn’t need to all the typical things associated with the status of a king in those days. It was his presence and the words he spoke. He showed that man requires humility to feel the full extent of love. When we love, we give of ourselves…we serve our heart on a platter and it becomes vulnerable.

Never did I think I would put Jesus and Hitler in an essay, but here it goes:

There is a famous picture of Hitler shaking hands with President Paul von Hindenburg in 1933. It shows a short-figured Adolf Hitler slightly bowing down to a great war-veteran, his uniform full of medals. Hitler appears to be full of ‘Demut’. But this was the turning point in German politics and we know what happened next.

In my research, I read that Hitler dealt with failure in a peculiar way. He was rejected by an arts academy and became “not only a victim of his failure, but a victim of the analysis of this failure”. He didn’t know how to cope with it and therefore gave the whole thing his own interpretation: that he must be an unrecognized genius. Too good to be an artist. It gave him his first ‘paranoid push’ into the direction of the madman he ended up as.

Hitler declared ‘Demut’ (or humility) as the greatest evil for the German Nation…a weak attribute in man that must be eliminated. Why serve anybody if you are the superior Aryan race?

Well, I can’t stop picturing Martin Luther having a meeting with Adolf Hitler, explaining to him that even if you do descend from God, He is still your maker. And if God didn’t exist, then who do we answer to? Atheism, in a roundabout way justifies Hitler’s moral code and the decisions he made.

Even if you don’t believe in Jesus or his existence – his is the only story of God incarnate consciously acting as a servant-king in the form of a teacher (Rabbi). If he could humble himself before others, then who the hell are we not to?

The German still suffers from the moral sickness that swept over his land 70 years ago. He doesn’t like to embrace failure and fears humility.

Time can change a society. But the soul of an abused people does not transform without conscious effort, and the grace and redemption of the one true God.  

a thread for a community

In the history of the world, revolutions have rarely ever begun without several people realizing the same thing(s) and acting upon that revelation. And in our day and age, this hasn’t changed. People form clusters centred on a shared idea, understanding or belief.

You, the readers of this blog, whether you agree or disagree with what I write, are a cluster…a distinct grouping participating in the discourse I am presenting. In that sense, you are a community. The root of the word ‘community’ is ‘common’. This can be understood as people, who have something in common, coming together – in unity…common-unity!

But it seems that strong communities are far from common these days. Healthy communities are rare and our understanding of their importance has been demoted. The new generation is growing accustomed to a community born and nurtured in cyber space. And whether or not that is positive must be asked by other people.

I would like to question how the deterioration of community has come about. And, as sad as it is true, it starts with the individual.

Each individual has learned his own way of perceiving the world around him. Some tend to be outward-looking whereas others focus on the interior. There are also those that find a balance between the two. We hardly every realize how our own body is made up of different communities itself. The senses are our community of perception. Yet, how often do we embrace each one of them and use it consciously?

Recently, there was a sweltering heat where I live and I decided to go to the lake. While I was swimming, I listened to my breathing…felt the cool water on my skin…heard different sounds…tasted the humid air hovering above the surface…saw the sunlight shimmering on the ripples my movements caused…and smelled that strange mixture of heat impacting on the wet pieces that fell into the lake from the trees. Then I glanced into the distance and saw a huge, dark blanket of clouds slowly moving towards me.

A massive storm was brewing and I returned to the shore to head back home. However, nobody else appeared to notice the storm and it was quite confusing. Why wouldn’t you see the clouds and decide to get away?

Natural disasters tend to have one positive outcome: they draw people together to form a community in which everybody helps one another. It was seen with the recent floods in Germany. Often we don’t see the storm before it is too late. And perhaps we require a storm every now and then to make us realize what we have and how it is vital to stick together!

Sometimes we must focus on the big things, to appreciate the small things. It is certainly based on an individual’s experience.

People are different. And too often it is hard to accept that somebody else does or believes something else from you. There are those that walk, those that cycle and those who drive a car. With each form of transport, we discover different things.

When you walk, you take in more ‘stuff’…you can listen to birds, see things right in front of you, turn around and have a 360 degree angle of the world. But you won’t get to your destination as quickly. You compromise getting to the finishing line faster for the experience.

When you drive, you pass the world in high-speed. Whatever you discover ends up behind you just as fast. Unless you stop, of course. And when you take your eyes off the road, you are risking a dangerous outcome. Unless you drive slowly, of course. You must pay attention to other drivers and have to conform to a set of rules. You will get to the finishing line faster than anybody else – but at what cost? And when you get there, will you regret experiencing more on the journey?

When you cycle, it appears to be the best of both worlds. Fast, but not too fast. You experience enough and you can take your eyes off the road without major problems.

None of the above is better than the other. Our mode of transportation translates into life as the journey we choose to be on. Each day, we make the choice on how to commute through life. The word ‘commute’ has several meanings:

1.       Change, alter

2.       To give in exchange for another

3.       To convert (as a payment) into another form

As individuals, we change throughout the day…we go through moods; we have thoughts, ideas, and do certain things. We give something of ourselves in return for something, be it substantial or trivial. It’s still something. We pay and convert our seconds, minutes and hours of life into experiences; treasured, remembered or forgotten. We build up our community of memories.

Last but not least, each revolution is steeped in how we communicate with each other. And recently, I re-watched the film ‘Matilda’, based on the story written by Roald Dahl. It is a beautiful tale about a young girl who lives with a family that doesn’t care about her and she decides to teach herself how to read. Roald Dahl was probably concerned with the growing influence of television on a new, young generation. The family doesn’t interact, but rather sits in front of the TV whilst eating dinner.

Growth begins with nurturing. And communication plays an important role in nurturing a human-being. Kids grow up learning how to interact with the world from their parents. Hence, parents have the most difficult job, because they are preparing the members of our community. This responsibility must be fathomed before one decides to have children. You can have many kids, but with each one of them you only get one shot at doing it right! And one foul apple in the batch makes all the others taste bad.

Here in Germany, they want to push for full-day schools in every region. Why? Because parents are both employed and no longer have the time necessary to take care of their kids. It makes little sense to me to have children and at an age, when they need parents the most, to push them away. Our family is the first community we learn from and get an understanding of how the world should work. Too often, we are victims of a dysfunctional family and the actual community, that ought to help us, has too many rotten apples to deal with in the first place. It’s not a vicious circle. It is a vicious spiral…that is never ending if you don’t make a clean cut and start afresh.

All of us have our part to play in re-shaping and re-forming the community we want to live in. And even if you simply bring about that realization in a person close to you, the closer we will get to bringing back the feeling of ‘togetherness’…because life is the common thread binding us in unity.  

a treasure called risk

spring arrived just over a month ago. in this last month, i have seen many wonderful images as well as those that simply haunt you…and stick with you. as i elaborate on the following, please be aware that the subject matter focuses on several morbid images.

the roads in May are a death sentence for animals, big and small: birds, mice, rabbits, cats and dogs. man’s world is too fast for them to survive one short trip to the other side of a stretch of concrete. every time i come across a new road kill victim, i can’t help my anthropomorphic thoughts that construct a life story for the animal and questions like:

 where was he going?

where does he come from?

was she going back home to family?

did she even know the risk of her crossing?

it all goes back to my childhood and watching a popular tv series called The Animals of Farthing Wood created by Colin Dann. you cannot help but develop sheer empathy for those helpless animals that are subject to humanity’s callousness and greed-driven desires to rape nature.

spring is the time of birth, but this birth is accompanied by inevitable death. everything that comes into being shares that same fate of an ephemeral existence. like those animals, we, too, are subjected to making that vital decision: should we cross the road?

a life without risk is a life that hasn’t seen the other of that road. and crossing the road involves a huge amount of risk. and this is where you have to ask yourself: what is on the other side? what is it that would make you take a step and cross over? or who is it that you would fight for?

 each one of us has something that we would risk everything for – that personal treasure. and it’s never too late for us to search for it. there is an example of a man who, sentenced to death based on too little evidence, spent decades exposing the injustices of the American death row prison system through his writing.

William Van Poyck has his own blog and his story was recently featured in an article by Chris Hedges entitled “Murder Is Our National Sport”. how human beings can lock up other human beings like lab rats and eventually inject them with deadly chemicals is something i will never comprehend. the death sentence is a cruel, inhuman procedure that has never managed to eradicate the source of our societal disease.

crime is like malaria – you can kill the mosquitoes, but the disease will remain. and often, mosquitoes get a better end than the criminals on death row. why does a man have to wait for years until he is finally killed in, what can only be described as a display of human cruelty? and how is injecting you with a needle, pumping you full of chemicals better than just having somebody cut off your head?

yes, it is a gruesome topic to discuss – but we shut our eyes when we encounter death and pretend that it has nothing to do with us. you don’t have to be a criminal on death row to consciously deal with this very real issue. Life is death. and death is life! it’s not a contradiction. it’s a complimentary fact.

For most of us, our treasure…our other side…is Love. Love for family, love for friends, love for things and love for ourselves. Love is the bridge connecting life with death. it is through love that we appreciate life and become wary of death. Love is the teacher of true risk! because to love means to risk everything. the man who is not willing to risk all he has and all he is cannot feel the full impact of love. and that impact, like the impact of a car on an animal crossing the road, is very hard and able to crush you. love is letting go of control and embracing life and death as constant travelling companions.

nature, despite what we may believe, is more powerful than humanity because it obeys its own laws. whereas we always find new ways to boost our own superiority. you see, we think we are driving the car on that road called life. we are like the animals but just cannot see the oncoming traffic. or perhaps it is too fast for us to see?

For many, life is about comfort and finding ways in which our existence can become easier. For some, it is about being treasure hunters, digging as many holes as it takes to find what we are searching for. it is the search that turns us into who we are. And it’s the struggle that makes us appreciate the end.

we cross the road knowing just how dangerous it is…but also know that that what is waiting for us was worth the journey.

a struggle called goodness

It has been one of those mornings, where you step into the shower, still half-asleep, without realizing there’s an “inzy winzy spider” hanging from the wall. Only that the rain pouring down came from the shower head in the form of a hot water monsoon. Spidey had no chance and was accidentally washed down the drain. Actually…No…I lie…It was me who killed the poor creature. Well, let’s say I just stood by idly, watching it drown. My decision was to not help the spider. And, even though it might be odd, I did feel slightly upset…because it didn’t take much for me to help the smallest of creatures.
 

The question pertaining to the goodness of man has been spinning around my head for the past weeks. It began with the night before Good Friday, when Pope Francis decided to alter the Roman Catholic tradition of washing the feet of 12 men from the Vatican – representing the Apostles. His predecessor, Benedict XVI, made a slight change by washing the feet of lay men instead of priests. Francis took this ritual back to its origins: the lost and forgotten, the outcasts of society. He visited the church of the Casal del Marmo youth prison to wash the feet of both young male and female prisoners.

For those who have read scriptures this shouldn’t come as a surprise. But for the world of media and sensationalist hype (and Catholic conservatives) this came as a massive shock. How can the Pope wash the feet of a Muslim woman? All kinds of controversial questions were raised thereafter. And this is something that really tugged at my heart…the way humanity has developed to disregard goodness and rather focus on the problem(s) surrounding an act. Or rather, the way people have been made to think that goodness is a surprising act.

This moral corruption I am talking about was backed up by a short paragraph of Paulo Coelho’s new book:

***

In the monastery of Sceta, Abbot Lucas gathered the brothers together for a sermon.

‘May you all be forgotten,’ he said.

‘But why?’ one of the brothers asked. ‘Does that mean that our example can never serve to help someone in need?’

‘In the days when everyone was just, no one paid any attention to people who behaved in an exemplary manner,’ replied the abbot.

”Everyone did their best, never thinking that by behaving thus they were doing their duty by their brother. They loved their neighbour because they understood that this was part of life and they were merely obeying a law of nature. They shared their possessions in order not to accumulate more than they could carry, for journeys lasted a whole lifetime. They lived together in freedom, giving and receiving, making no demands on others and blaming no one.’

“That is why their deeds were never spoken of and that is why they left no stories. If only we could achieve the same thing now: to make goodness such an ordinary thing that there would be no need to praise those who practise it.”

***

Good Friday is not called Good Friday because of the goodness of man. It was Jesus who decided to obey his father and sacrifice himself for humanity’s salvation. This narrative is unique and should serve us as example for what true goodness really entails. However, one might question the motives that accompany somebody’s act of goodness.

In a recent episode of the Colbert Report, Bill Clinton spoke about his many initiatives to help people around the world. Stephen Colbert asked him whether or not he was doing it for his own good. And Clinton replied: "I think the reason we should do things for other people at bottom is selfish, and there's no real difference between selfish and selfless if you understand how the world works. We're all tied together."

When dealing with the issue of helping somebody else we tend to focus on the bad ‘side-effects’. I suppose therein lies the struggle of goodness…to wrestle with the question: “What’s in it for me?” Because that is what we are conditioned to think first…at least in a secular world ruled by self-interest.

A few weeks ago, I found myself standing in the Waldsassen monastery library, which is famous for its wooden carvings, completed in in 1725 by the local sculptor Karl Stilp. He created 10 sculptures depicting the vices and temptations of the world in order to remind the monks who enter the library of the evil they faced each day. These are:

Defiance, stupidity, arrogance, vanity, boasting, ignorance, pride, deviousness, curiosity and hypocrisy.

 
Our struggle is not in identifying these traits in ourselves, but rather working against their slow and steady manifestation inside us. A reminder of their existence helps, but cannot remove it for good. We must constantly strive to keep the upper hand against evil, even when we do not know the outcome. Life is about that struggle on a daily basis.

It does not matter whether our selflessness is inspired by a selfish motive. What matters is that we DO stand up for goodness as if it was the most natural thing on earth – which, in truth, it is!

 

That is not to say that one has to save every little creature in an obsessive, Buddhistic manner. But humanity must make a conscious decision to be good, do good and stand for goodness. It is a simple decision, but a very, very difficult process to embark on.

Last month, Chinua Achebe, one of Africa’s greatest writers, passed away. He wrote on the domination of one group over the other and, in many ways, evil often seems to dominate the world today. There is this beautiful parable he tells that makes you realize that the victory lies within the struggle, which I leave with you for more thought.

***

“The leopard meets the tortoise on a lonely stretch of road. The leopard has been trying to catch the tortoise for a long time. The tortoise is a trickster and so obviously has been escaping and then, on this day, the leopard finally catches up with him and says, ‘Aha! Now I’ve got you. Prepare to die.’

And the tortoise says to [the] leopard, ‘Can I ask you one last favor?’ And the leopard says, ‘Yes, why not?’ And the tortoise says, ‘Give me a short time to prepare myself for death.’ And the leopard looked around and said, ‘I don’t see why not. Yes, go ahead.’

But then, instead of standing still and thinking as the leopard had expected, the tortoise began to dig and scatter sand all over the road, throwing sand in all directions with his hands and feet.

And the leopard says, ‘What’s going on, why are you doing that?’

And the tortoise says, ‘I’m doing this because after I am dead I want anyone passing by this spot and seeing all this sign of struggle on the road to say, ‘A man and his match struggled here.’”

***

a window called opportunity

"i can see clearly now the rain is gone
i can see all obstacles in my way
gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
it's gonna be a bright sun-shiny day"
- johnny nash

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
after a long, dreary february, the sun decided to show its face again...ready to share its warming light to the hungry sprouts lurking beneath the frozen ground. and that's just the beginning!

* * *
spring is a true phenomenon when you witness the resurrection of nature and delight in the miracle of that new life. when the sun shines, you feel as if the annual spring cleaning is taking place in the depths of your soul. that's where it starts, isn't it? it's about working on what's inside and turning it around to be what is on the outside.

the car i drive looks filthy in sunlight. but it's not just the outside that needs cleaning. the dust inside can suddenly be seen and it requires you to take action. there is no strict sequence for cleaning a car, but the inside is mainly for your well-being. the outside is something one can focus on at a later stage. it really depends on how bad the outside actually is. if you cannot look through the front windscreen, you have a huge problem. in the same way, if you cannot see what is important in life and have a vision of where you are heading, then you must do something about that personal blindness.

there's a window in my room and the sun has been throwing its fiery rays at it. for a reason i cannot quite explain (it's pretty scientific) the heat the sun produces on the window surface created some sort hot-cold pressure zone. the glass of the window cracked. yet this crack is on the inside and not on the outside, which is slightly strange.

life can be divided into series of opportunities (missed, taken or simply put on hold) that translate into a personal map. it's the typical cross-road metaphor, whereby you choose which direction to go in. more often than not you are unaware of the opportunities - those cross-roads - you encounter on a daily basis. in retrospect, however, you can identify the route you've taken. that is to say, the experience of making choices equals the wisdom we have acquired throughout the years. wisdom cannot be measured, though. a 20 year old can be as wise as a 60 year old depending on the experiences they both have made. one must define wisdom before one can compare it.

it seems the only real opportunity we are offered every day and which we can consciously approach is the shaping of the self. even if you are unemployed, you go to work the moment your eyes open and you regain full consciousness...because you are working on yourself...the way you encounter the exterior factors and circumstances that life offers you.

therefore, the cracked window from the inside makes all the more sense in a philosophical way. no matter what hits you, it is always the inside that will take most of the impact. when an opportunity comes your way and you refuse to take it, this will have repercussions on you as a being. the same, if you do choose to walk down that new path.

as with all things, we must decide whether or not the mending of that crack is a priority or not. chances are that the crack will get bigger over time. but the window called opportunity will stay intact. in fact, it can be cleaned and opened to let some fresh spring air inside.

the eyes may represent the window to your soul, but your soul is a window that is intertwined with the experiences, opportunities and decisions you make or have made - consciously or subconsciously. and our personal quest to making our dreams come true depends on whatever action we take.

* * *
in a few weeks, the crocuses will sneak out of their hiding spot and they, too, will be happy to receive some sunny hugs...and if they can withstand the darkest hours for just a few moments in the sun, then so can you!

 

a glove for a universe

tumbling dry 

turning, tumbling

in God’s hand
the universe is like a band
never out of harmony
plays an intricate symphony
of life and love and hope and stuff
we won’t comprehend
until the end
when we are sent
behind the stage
to unlock the cage
of mysteries and histories
which interrupted the trust
the feeling one must

be turning, tumbling

in God’s hand
like a grain of sand

with no significance

but be part of a whole
though with one brick missing in God’s home
there’d be a mighty hole

not just in the spiritual heart

but in the universe’s soul.

 ***

 

Recently, I have been reading an intriguing book written by Argentinian gestalt psychotherapist Jorge Bucay entitled "Let me tell you (a story)". The premise for this book are the sessions between a therapist and a young man undergoing this unusual therapy. Unusual, because the old man's therapy consists of telling the young man all kinds of stories.

 

It dawned on me that the best reflection is self-reflection within a story so far from one's reality, and yet so familiar...so close to one's heart. The power of a story to convey a simple thought, which triggers off a realization that goes beyond the depths of mere understanding. It is a tool to re-construct a broken soul. Of course, the soul requires attention from different sides, and not just one.

 

So, the mental coming to terms with what's wrong with your soul is probably a first step in the mending process. The human being is a being that cannot truly be without its soul intact. And for that one must constantly check all the rooms in one's bodily home.

 

There's an Indian saying, or rather an axiom that goes: "...everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but, unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person."        

 

With that in mind, we should be aware that there is a common link between these rooms. For me personally, creativity is the corridor that connects them all.

 

A simple example occured to me this morning, when I stepped out into the freezing, fresh cold outside. There was a new, thick layer of snow sticking together in front of the door and the driveway. I proceeded to grab the shovel and began to push, lift and throw the snow somewhere else. Shoveling snow is physical labour and with a repetitive movement, one's mind quickly wanders off...

 

First, it wandered off into the past where the child I was, was playing in the heaps of snow; building a snow man, making snow angels, preparing a snow ball arsenal, constructing an igloo etc. Memories flood in throw this mental room, like a gust of wind, and force open the emotional one.

 

Next, one finds oneself standing in that cluttered attic, full of things that form the emotional labyrinth of life...and all emotions depend on each other. They cling together, just like the snow. And, like snow, one can remove emotions...but they won't disappear until the sun makes them melt away. That is to say, one has to bridge over into another room...the cellar if you will, the place we are often afraid to go down to, because what we find there is the truth...and the truth is often the scarriest of things to encounter.

 

It begins to snow. The snowflakes are light and don't seem like they are falling. They too are engaged in an interplay of infinite paths on which they can travel in their short-lived presence. It almost appears as if God set them in motion, with a clear direction...but they could choose how to spend their time going there. These snowflakes dance, jump, fly, tumble, float through the air. Some even glide in the soft breeze going back up.

 

White stars that exist in their own world...i hold out my glove-covered hands...touching this ulterior galaxy and feel like the walls in my house are coming down and all rooms turn into just ONE BIG ROOM. Within that room, time and space vanish. I am in tune with the reality and the creativity i exist in. Just like one of those snow flakes, i feel at peace being set loose whence i came from.

 

i share this story, like Jorge Bucay shares his, not as a form of therapy, but simply because it is a story. and whatever you find within it belongs to you and it will be yours for as long as you hold on to it...just like the snowflake falling on my glove formed an infinite galaxy of creativity for a very short, finite instance.

 

 

a kingdom called freedom

every morning when i come into the kitchen to get some breakfast, my cat miaows at me repeatedly. it's not unusual to wonder what the feline actually has to say. it's normal to imagine what she is saying: 

miaow 1 = "food!"
miaow 2 = "love me"
miaow 3 = "let me out"
miaow 4 = "good morning, (sir)"
miaow 5 = "whatsup?"
etc.

she is only allowed to stay in the downstairs area of the house and today, i was certain that all she wanted was for me to open the door which leads to the stairs....ahhhh!!! the stairs!!! Gigi LOVES the stairs. well, she loves the banister on which she can rub her body, almost like a bear scratching its back on the bark of a tree. who can blame her? cats are explorers and naturally like to familiarize themselves with the entire terrain they inhabit.

my other cat Petit, for example, tends to run to the very top of the house and simply just play 'hide and seek'. he's not very good at it, because he always hides in the same place.

but such is the difference in their characters. the one thing they both have in common is that they don't quite grasp the rule of: "do not go up the stairs!"

human beings have plenty of rules to follow. and one may wonder, when looking at the state of the world, whether there are just too many laws for the average person to get a handle on. there are rules passed down to us when we were children growing up, e.g. don't eat with your mouth open; don't leave your clothes lying around etc.

our parents are the first ones to teach us how to react to a set of rules.

next, we spend many years in a classroom obeying many different figures of authority. at the same time, we are influenced by friends, who themselves received another set of rules from their parents. by this time, we are already determined to challenge the rule-makers in every way possible. there appears to be an inherent need to know what can and what can't be done.

sadly, school leaves us in a traumatized state, because we weren't only bombarded with information, facts, different disciplines, subjects, experiences, and are then expected to have formed a comprehensive understanding of ourselves, the people around us and the laws we ought to abide.

there are biological, mathematical, physical, chemical, literary, and many more laws that we take in for many, many years and then...we get spit out into the 'real' world. but before that, we are encouraged to visit another institution, where we are given the impression of absolute freedom.

the first point at which we notice the falsity of that freedom is our first deadline. thereafter, our lives become more like a race with neverending deadline hurdles. Something always has to be done by some point, specific or vague. only some people attempt to break loose from the chains of such a life. death itself ought to be the only deadline we ever have to face. thank God none of us ever know that exact date.

there are many people who long for a greater law, which was not set by people. however, if one doesn't abide the man-made law of a nation, one will face the consequences. that's how rules are enforced in a causal manner: "if you do this, then this will happen". and we are all subjected to that causality, whether we want it or not.

freedom can be a state of mind. it can also be a physical condition. when you are stuck in a room, and the door is locked, you are far from being free. however, it does not prevent you from feeling free. it all depends on what each person requires to feel truly free.

we are not free to do as we please. that way, the whole world would collapse in chaos and anarchy. unfortunately, there are people who require more rules than others. after all, everybody's upbringing is different. human beings develop their understanding of the world in an infinite number of ways. therefore it is no surprise that this infinity was to cause huge problems for humanity and possibly become its greatest threat.

so...God, the being of infinite power that shaped our infinitely unique presence on this earth, would have to be the one to bring about a structure in which the world can safely operate, without destroying each other. the creator would have to write his own user manual.

God created a perfect software with access to infinite happiness. Within the system, a glitch came about and never left the software. but like a glitch, a human being is able to correct itself...to make itself right...to become useful to God, its infinite creator.

yet, one is asked to follow the manual. it is designed to get the best results out of the software. and one has to trust the one who created it.

this is the most problematic aspect of following the divine laws. throughout our lives we have so many horrible experiences with authoritarian figures, people who enforce their rules (which often make no sense whatsoever), that we end up distrusting the world and all it has to offer. this cynicism is worse than cancer, because it corrupts our positive approach to life...and kills our sense of trust.

trust is the most basic element of healthy living. one person must be able to trust another person. this is why the love for your neighbour is such a big deal. trust is a manifest of love. you don't have to kiss him or be his best friend. but you must be able to trust him.

for instance, i trust that my neighbour, when i give him a set of spare keys to my house, will not go steal all my belongings when i am away. trust is knowing that when i drive in the right lane, nobody is going to drive towards me on the same lane to decimate both our cars. there are many more examples for how basic trust governs our daily lives.

in the same way, all of us (no matter if you believe in God or not) believe that trust is the building block for a strong societal structure. but with God on your team, you get to know the architect. through Him, you can experience true freedom, because his system is infinitely better than an Apple, Microsoft etc. all put together. God's system requires every software, no matter how bad your glitch.

God's kingdom becomes stronger with every tiny bit of trust given towards it. Its might depends on you and your interaction with the world...because your life is significant to the one who created you.

last but not least, in a new year that is stepping out of the shadows of continuous evil (the shooting at at the Sandy Hook school, the rape of a young Indian woman, to mention only two of thousand recurring cases), i reckon one shouldn't have a set of resolutions. instead, one ought to be resolute to becoming a better person, faithful and trusting that together, we can all see this world through to a better place before our final deadline.

in essence, there is nothing wrong with my cats going up the stairs. they don't understand that we human beings don't like having cat hair everywhere, or them scratching on furniture, because they care about other things. on the other hand, how do i know what they truly want?

we are fortunate that our creator understands us and our struggle for true freedom. and our voices can never be silenced. our miaows will be heard...