THE Meaning of Life

Perhaps the meaning of life is as simple...and as profound...as the rules to the old PAC-Man video game.  Do you remember those rules?  If not, here they are: Eat.  Avoid bad people.  Move to the next level.

Or, maybe the meaning of life is...chocolate.

Chances are neither of the above are satisfying answers to the question, "What is the meaning of life?"

The Jewish Talmud teaches that:
Just before a baby is born,
An angel shows it everything there is to know and learn on earth.
Then, at the moment of birth,
The angel touches the baby's upper lip, and the child forgets everything.
And so, we spend the rest of our lives
Remembering what the angel showed us.

That's sweet.  Who knows, maybe that is the meaning of life.

Or, the meaning of life might be very much like the movie by the Monty Python comedy group described it:  A series of happenings and events, some of which have meaning; some of which don't.  Some good times; some bad times.  (And through it all, a good sense of humor will go a long way toward making life tolerable.)

BTW.  If you have not seen this great classic movie, you must stop reading this blog-post immediately, and watch the movie.  Go ahead, I will be here when you get back.

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.........OK, now that we're all up to speed, we can go on.

After you are born...and you begin the quest to remember all the angel showed you:

You will have stuff to do.
Tasks will present themselves.  Some easy.  Some not so easy.  Some tasks will be obvious ways forward in your development and growth.  Others, not so much.  Still others, not so obvious.

You will have to work at staying alive.
Be careful out there, its a dangerous world.
Eat well.  Get enough exercise.  Be kind to others.  Find your limits.

There will be challenges.
There will be joy.  There will be pain and suffering.
Try hard to make the challenges turn into opportunities.

You will have to decide.
And when you do, remember that decisions and choices have consequences.
Some of those consequences can make or break you.

You will play, observe, learn, and gain skills.
You will discover how things work.  And you will begin to understand what makes the world go 'round.

Along life's way you will attach yourself to deities, gods, faith, a philosophy of life.
These may be projections of your own experiences, or they may be from beyond human experience with a reality all their own.

You will have friends.  And mentors.  And guides. 
You will have enemies.
You may experience sex.  You may find a loving mate, partner, spouse.
You will gain wisdom.  You may amass some amount of wealth.  Or, you may be poor.

You will fail.  You will lose.  You will cry.
You will love.  You will heal.  You will succeed.

You will die.
And you will be remembered.  Remembered by the way your brought meaning to life.

Who knows, maybe in there somewhere is THE meaning of life.

Who or What Is It That Orders Your Life?

What is it that orders your life? 

Here are three principles that have helped order my life over 68 years of being alive on this planet of ours:
~Everything in this life is trial and error.
That, of course, means it is necessary to take risks.
It also means that failure will be a part of life.
And so, no trial...no error.  Nothing learned.
No risk...no failure.  Nothing gained.
And, the status quo is never...ever...the way forward.

~Strategize, and find out what is essential.  Sooner, rather than later.
Strategy makes moving forward so much easier.
Develop a strategy for how you will allocate your time, energy, resources, and wisdom.
Put your best efforts into those things that will produce the best and most rewards.
You cannot do everything...but you can give your best to those things that are essential.

~Make sure the folks close to you will give you honest feedback.
Sharpening your life-skills will depend, in no small way, on the family, friends, and colleagues who can and will tell you the truth.
It is a for-sure thing that you will benefit from one, two, or maybe three people who will be open and honest with you about how things really are.

For some folks the who or what that orders their life is ethics.
For some it is parents, or elders.
For some if is tradition.
For some it is religion.
For some it is pragmatism.
For some it is reason.
For some it is law.
For some it is whatever strikes their fancy at the time.

There are many whos and/or whats that would order our lives.

Choose your who or what wisely.

What in the World is "An Enhanced Virtual Driver?"

An ad that replays often during the sports-talk radio programs that I listen to on my car radio has two guys talking.  One says, "I played St. Andrews last week."  The other questions, "But, that's in Scotland, were you out of the country?"  "No," says the one, "I was playing it on my computer..."

Come to find out there is a website you can join that will allow you to "play" all the great golf courses of the world.  "Its just like being there," says the one guy in the ad.

And, if you sign-up to join this website you will receive...wait...wait for it..."An Enhanced Virtual Driver!"

Oh my goodness, sign me up!

No, not really.

OK, by definition "virtual golf" isn't real golf, its a simulation of real golf.

This is a picture of an actual driver, ready to strike a real golf ball.  That's a real tee holding that real golf ball, and the real tee is pushed down into real grass and real dirt.  Really.  Not virtually.

Virtual.  There's virtual almost everything these days.  Virtual sports, virtual classrooms, virtual churches, virtual dating, virtual communication.  Virtual.  Not real.  Simulated.  Not actual.

My guess is that some folks...maybe too many folks, prefer to deal with the virtual instead of the real. 

Virtual is safe, of course.  Real can be scary. 

Virtual can be controlled.  Real can hardly ever be tamed.

Virtual is contained within an electronic device.  Real is never contained.

Virtual can be adjusted to fit your skill-level or competency or desire.  Real will challenge every skill and competency and desire you have, every minute of every day.

This is a picture of the real St. Andrews golf course.  In the real country of Scotland.

I confess I have only played virtual golf on an arcade game console and a home game system hooked up to a large screen TV.  I sucked at it.  And, I didn't enjoy playing it much at all.  (I also am not that great at real golf, but I do enjoy playing it.  A lot.)

But.  But, I still wanna know what in the wide world of sport "An Enhanced Virtual Driver" is, and why I should find this a good reason to sign-up to play a not-real game.  (And, how much of a disadvantage am I at if I choose to use just a "Regular Virtual Driver?"

Oh.  If I carry more than 14 virtual golf clubs in my virtual golf bag while virtually playing the virtual St. Andrews course, is that a virtual penalty?

Do I have to pay a virtual caddy?

Do I have to wear a shirt with a collar while playing virtual golf?

I'm done here.  Really.

Favorite Hang-Outs...

I was born in 1945.

And so, when I talk here about places I used to hang-out, I am talking about the 1950s and early 60s. 

I have never visited this corner hang-out, but it looks like a cool place for friends to gather and chew the fat, shoot the bull, swap lies, or whatever else friends might do at a place like this.

This looks like a fine hang-out.  I could picture the crowd I used to run with eating ice cream cones and passing time at a place like this.

The State Fair...on a hot August night...could be a great place to hang-out.  Eat some elephant ears, drink a lemon shake-up, maybe bite into whatever crazy thing is being deep-fried that year. 

The Soda Bar...on the main street in New Carlisle...I did hang-out there.  During my high school years, the Soda Bar was the place to hang out...during lunch break, after school, after the game.  Great burgers.  Couple pinball machines.  Juke box.  Great place.

Bonnie Doone's was a cool place to hang-out when I was a teenager.  Grape flavored malts...oh yeah, I loved those things.

Not Robertsons Department Store...look further down the street, on the right-hand side...yeah, the State Theatre.  With your girl, that was a great place to hang-out. 

Oh well, nostalgia is a wonderful thing, isn't it?  Are you remembering some of the places you and your friends used to hang-out...back in the day?

My guess is that you are smiling a bit while you do that remembering.

Politics and Religion...Scary Stuff

Everyone of us has heard the warning: Never discuss Politics or Religion!

Its scary what can happen when we fail to observe that warning.  Even though Politics is how we socially organize ourselves, and Religion is how we morally and ethically organize ourselves, it just won't do to have folks talking with each other about those subjects...because...because we don't just hold views on those subjects, we hold positions on those subjects.

And like the really old cigarette commercial observes, "We (Us Tareyton smokers) would rather fight than switch!"

So, no discussion about Politics or Religion from me today...just some pictures.

And just two more...to kinda tone the argument(s) down a notch or so:

Signing out...

Keep It Between the Ditches...

The guest preacher at my church last Sunday said something like, "To get where you want to go in life just look straight ahead, keep going, and keep it between the ditches."
The "it" was the vehicle he imagined himself in as he headed down the road of life.  The "keep it between the ditches" phrase was something his older brother had told him as he was teaching the guest preacher to drive...when both of them were young teenagers.

Look straight ahead, keep going, and keep it between the ditches.  That was his advice to the congregation, as he encouraged us to be about the life-long task of pursuing social justice issues.

Good advice, that.  Hard to pull off, that.

Wonder what it is that each of us is walking straight toward.

Whatever the prize that we have our eyes on up the road ahead, over there in the ditches to our right and left are some very scary things.  So, look straight ahead, keep going, and keep it between the ditches.

Get off track and fall in a ditch and you may find yourself too satisfied with whatever distance you have already come.  You may settle for the status quo.  You just could get comfortable down in that cozy ditch.  Shoot, you could just decided to call off the trek.

Some thoughts offered by others, wiser than me, come to mind:

~I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then.  -Lewis Carroll

~God is right there in the thick of our day-by-day lives...trying to get messages through our blindness as we move around down here knee-deep in the fragrant muck and misery and marvel of the world.  -Frederick Beuchner

~Journeying god, pitch your tent with mine so that I may not become deterred by hardship, strangeness, doubt.  Show me the movement I must make toward a wealth not dependent on possessions, toward a wisdom not based on books, toward a strength not bolstered by might, toward a god not confined to heaven.
             -portion of a traditional prayer song from Ghana

And this one, from Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
~Until you die...its all life.

Look straight ahead, keep going, and keep it between the ditches.

Simple Truths

I have a really good book to recommend: Simple Truths by Stephen Bauman.  It was published in 2006 by Abingdon Press.  Bauman delivers a daily one-minute inspirational message on WCBS radio in New York City.  This book is a compilation of some of those messages.

I was re-reading the book recently and began listing some short Simple Truths that I have picked up over my 68 years of living, and 40 years of ministry.  The list will turn into a sermon to be delivered at St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Bloomington (where I serve as one of the pastors) in early 2014.

Here are some Simple Truths:

-The Creator really does love us, and really is committed to our redemption…

 -Grace is at the true center of our Creator and Redeemer…

 -The Redeemer just could be at work in all the world, in all people, and even in all faith systems…

 -Divine grace is bestowed on me, and on people other than me…

 -The hope of this world is the unlimited and loving patience of the One who created us all…

 -I am expected to forgive, to be merciful, and to love…

 -Even though it troubles me, it is nonetheless true that the Creator loves my enemies as much as me…

 -We human beings are most near perfection when we love each other…

-Like it or not, we are known by how we live, how we live together, how we treat one another, how we spend our time, our money, and our energy…

-We can choose to reflect grace to the world around us, or not…
 
-We can practice a faith that is rock-solid compassion at its core, and porous at its edges…or we can practice a faith that is all about hard-edged exclusion, encrusted in ancient creeds, and couched in terrible prejudice…
 
-Who we are becoming is entirely up to us…

-We truly are compelled to act in the world…

 

But then, I am reminded that: