The chill breaks
From the porch I see
The cars roll by I hear
The church bells mark
The hour.
The sun bakes
And bleaches out
The calendar.
Cascades of yesterdays
And tomorrows
Suspended.
Time enough for time
Not now.
We don’t have to name a condition to know it. The naming is often imprecise, incomplete and misleading, giving us a general idea, but not fully representing the experience or phenomenon.
Yet we want to name what we see and feel and know, because it allows us to talk about it and in the case of troubles or problems, start solving them.
Reading one of the many disturbing and unsettling stories in today’s news, I was reminded of a special movie that arrived in 1982. Free of narration, with a haunting soundtrack by Phillip Glass, Koyaanisqatsi is an arresting visual juxtaposition of nature’s world and man’s world in the late 20th century. The title is taken from a Hopi word, meaning chaotic life, corrupted life, life out of balance. The full title of the film is Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance.
There be no more apt way of describing where we seem to be right now. A name for our condition. It is this simple. Life seems to be out of balance. More so than in 1982, more than earlier times. Not worse, though that may be. Simply out of balance. As if we feel like we are falling over, or about to fall over, and we would like to feel steadier, so we can keep standing up, so we can keep walking straight ahead.
Humble
Humble in the morning.
Smart or stupid.
Big or small.
Strong or weak.
Humble in the morning.
What must it be like to wake up in space as an astronaut? You may think: aren’t humans remarkable? We built this spaceship, we escaped the gravity of earth, we propelled ourselves to the planets.
Then you look out the window.
“Displays are the secret superstars of CES” says a headline about the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show, the annual world’s fair of our bright digital future.
It seems that screens with higher resolution, more dimensions and more curves are something we can eagerly await.
It’s probably a good time to mention the Bible, Plato, Shakespeare, or whatever spiritual, philosophical or literary texts and icons you might consider a little remarkable.
As a student of media, and an admirer of brilliant media analysts such as Marshall McLuhan who tie evolving messaging to evolving media, I still should mention this. Much of our civilized foundation comes from oral traditions, or when set down, written and published in decidedly low-resolution form. Feathered quill pens managed to convey some very high-resolution thoughts and creativity.
Yes, I have a 4k TV and other amazing devices with astonishing screens and capabilities. But it was the Romans who gave us the concept of bread and circuses, distractions from the real issues at hand. Of course form and technique of messaging matter and change. But in the long run, our outcomes and lives will depend on the content of communications, whatever the resolution.
For wherever your treasure is, there will your heart be too.
Matthew 6:21
Presidents are like weather. They are atmospheric conditions that don’t necessarily change the details of how our days, or even our lives, go. But they are a presence, and something we have to live with, or learn to live with.
I’ve lived in different places with very different weather. I’ve lived with a number of Presidents, each of whom brought their own particular atmosphere. I like some of the weather more than others, I liked some of the Presidents more than others, including the different ways they affected the environment.
People ask and people discuss the effect of choosing one candidate over another. Some say: whichever one wins, we will survive. That may be true. But also true is that there may well be a different atmosphere, a different environment with one or the other.
Some also say: I can isolate my life from whoever is chosen. That may be true too. If you’re in a rainy place, you can carry an umbrella. If you’re in a cold place, you can bundle up. If you’re in a cloudy place, you can live (or think you can) without very much sun. Still, the question remains: if you have a choice, is that what you prefer?
Today the annual Torah reading cycle begins again with the portion Beresheet (also transliterated as Bereshit, Genesis 1:1-6:8).
It is a big Torah, a bigger Jewish Bible (Tanakh), and an even bigger Christian Bible. In all that expanse, nothing compares to the way it begins.
Bereshit: “When God Created …” This first word of the first book of the Bible serves both as the Hebrew name for the book Genesis and as an idiom for “Creation.” Because of its pride of position at the “start” of creation, as well as its uniqueness (the word never appears again in Scriptures), the word is subjected to intensive and varied exegetical analysis. Many, many meanings are derived from this one six-letter word….Jewish tradition has also held the six letters contain secrets that the wise will understand. (The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism, Geoffrey W. Dennis)
In English, it goes like this:
When God began to create heaven and earth—the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water—God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God. (New Jewish Publication Society translation)
Or this:
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. (New Revised Standard Version translation)
Or this:
When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth then was welter and waste and darkness over the deep and God’s breath hovering over the waters, God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. (Robert Alter translation)
Unformed. Void. Darkness. Wind. Welter. Waste. Light. When God began to create.
Maybe you once read or studied the Bible, in any of its versions. Maybe you still do. Maybe you don’t anymore or maybe you never did. Maybe you had deep discussions about God, about creation, and about whether there was something out of which creation was made or whether there was nothing and then there was something (ex nihilo). Then again, maybe not.
No matter your beliefs, consider this first portion, the first words, and the very first of the first words consisting of six Hebrew letters. Are there “secrets the wise will understand”? Are you that wise one?
Bob Schwartz 