Perspective

For the last few days I have been experiencing anxiety over the state of the world, destructive human tendencies and my own physical condition. I have been worried about my ability to cope with these things. The other night I had a dream in which I was in a mechanic shop having no luck at locating some out-moded spark plugs for my very old vehicle. That dream continues to haunt me and apparently tells me that I am using outdated notions for viewing the things that are troubling me. I have a very well developed (and possibly outdated!) tendency to view the state of the world, destructive human tendencies and my own physical condition as problems that need fixing, rather than human creations that are also part of Divine order, meaning that they do not need fixing, they are simply a part of reality right now. As Elaine Pagels wrote: "Heracleon [disciple of Valentinus who opposed the rigid judgmentalness of Irenaeus] explains that most Christians tend to take literally the imagery they find in the Scriptures: they see God as the creator who made this present world, the lawgiver who gave tablets to Moses on Sinai, the divine father who begot Jesus. But those who experience God’s presence come to see these traditional images for what they are—human creations." Time to meditate and figure out how to be with conditions as they are and determine the next right action for me.