It’s early in the day, but I don’t have any intention to declare a Pajama Day for us. Got errands? We do. For a few hours this morning though, I’m gonna remain in my pj’s doing nothing. I’m just sitting here in the recliner with the Loch Ness Monster Tie o’ the Day. I believe!
Okay. I don’t believe in the Loch Ness Monster. Nor do I believe in Sasquatch. But I understand why some people chase these mythical creatures. First, they want a little mysterious stuff in their lives. They want to believe the impossible is possible. Personally, I have enough mysterious stuff in my own life. If you’re alive, and if you examine your life and what goes on around you, you’ll see plenty of things that have no explanation.
Second, we want to believe in things. There are so many fundamentally perplexing things going on all across the planet that our foundations can seem to be shifting beneath our feet– sometimes in dangerous ways. Things we were sure of when we were young now feel shaky. We’re not sure how that transformation happened. Believing in ideas helps us move along our paths.
Personally, I do not think things here or elsewhere in the world have generally changed. I think we have just matured as we’ve grown older, and now we have a clearer picture of “reality.” And part of discerning “reality” is that thanks to technology, we are able to see events in real time as they happen, no matter where they happen. In that way, our picture of the world is more enlightened. Unfortunately, it also amps up our fear, and makes our thinking a bit cloudy with the sense of doom that sometimes overwhelms us
But the events we have front row seats to viewing– which is everything– have always existed. There has never been a time in human existence when wars have not been going on somewhere. There has never been a time when rulers have not taken advantage of their subjects. There has always been poverty. Sexual predators have always existed. There have always been bigots who feel they are superior to some race, religion, or culture. And on and on. As we find in Ecclesiastes, “there is nothing new under the sun.”
It might seem to us like there’s more of the crap, because we can see more of it than past generations. But there’s a positive flip-side to this. Technology has also made it possible to do good beyond our own cities, states, and country. We have the ability to do good works and save lives across the globe. We can do a lot of it right from our computers.
We don’t have to believe in that. It isn’t mythological. It is a reality, a fact. We can see it and participate in it. We can turn our compassion into something knowable and concrete– into actions. We can transform belief into “reality.”
Except for the Loch Ness Monster and Sasquatch. We can’t believe those characters into a reality. And who would want to? It’s fun to contemplate those wild creatures, mysteriously out there somewhere doing their own thing.