Kurtz's words
Nov. 17th, 2004 04:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clodia_risaSteve Kurtz, of PvP, is often a funny, smart-ass, and snarky guy. Sometimes he thinks of something wonderfully thoughtful and insightful. Today was one of those days. Today, in his daily post, which is somewhere between announcements and a blog, he put this up. It really meant something to me, and I wanted to archive it so I could read it again. And so I could share it with others. So here you go...be enlightened.
Want, settle, get
Posted on Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Forgive me, I'm about to get a little deep with you guys...but it's that time of year for me, so....
Thanksgiving 1995 was the last time I saw my mother in person. She died suddenly on December 1st of that year. I'm not telling you this to bring you down. It's been almost ten years and, these days, if we're thinking about Mom it's always in happy terms.
But Thanksgiving being a time of reflection, I annually stop to reflect on my mother. Ulitmately, her final lesson to me was taught by her passing: to question my beliefs and come to them after examination, not to blindly follow them because I was raised to.
I have no idea what's become of my mother. I know where her body is, and I am aware of the impact and impression she left on myself and those whom she knew. But I'm left to consider if her essense or soul existed and continues to exist in some form or another.
I wish I could commit the intellectual suicide required to believe that she is with Jesus, sipping cocktails and looking down on us. The idea of that being true saddens me. My mother has the universe sprawling out ahead of her and I would expect no limitations applied to where she could go. She should be bouding across the expanse, not hovering above a previous life.
Why is it that we as a people are so afraid of the unknown that the best afterlife we can conjure is a cushy spot to sit and look down upon the lives we no longer get to live? Is that the best we can do? Is this the best our religious leaders have to offer us? How utterly uninspiring.
Why are we taught that God is UP? Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of Astronomy knows that there is no "up." There is only out. Beyond the clouds is space. God isn't there. Why aren't we taught to look in? If God resides anywhere it's within.
When I sit and think about what will happen to me when I die, I try to become comfortable with the only form of immortality we can prove exists. We leave an impression on the world the moment we enter it. We touch people's lives, we effect the course of history both broad and personal. We can become a thread in the larger tapestry. Possibly, that's all we get. If I can become content with that possible outcome, why would I fear death? Certainly that's as noble a legacy as basking in Jesus for eternity.
In Hollywood, they have something called "want, settle, get." When you're casting for a part you WANT Tom Hanks, you'll settle for Hugh Jackman, but you end up getting Dennis Quaid.
When it comes to the afterlife, I want to travel the cosmos, experience the universe and touch the hand of God, I'll settle for being a part of the greater tapestry and history of mankind. I have no idea what I'm going to actually get.
My mother knows about my success. She knew about it, deep down, before it happened. Not because she's looking down from a heavenly perch. Rational or unexamined, her core belief was that her boys would grow into men, marry and have all the success, joy, love and loss that they deserve...and that belief was undisputable. I can trace the mark that belief left in our lives as easily as I can run my hand across the wood of this desk and feel it's grain.
That's substantial. That's immortality you can touch.
That's my mother.
Want, settle, get
Posted on Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Forgive me, I'm about to get a little deep with you guys...but it's that time of year for me, so....
Thanksgiving 1995 was the last time I saw my mother in person. She died suddenly on December 1st of that year. I'm not telling you this to bring you down. It's been almost ten years and, these days, if we're thinking about Mom it's always in happy terms.
But Thanksgiving being a time of reflection, I annually stop to reflect on my mother. Ulitmately, her final lesson to me was taught by her passing: to question my beliefs and come to them after examination, not to blindly follow them because I was raised to.
I have no idea what's become of my mother. I know where her body is, and I am aware of the impact and impression she left on myself and those whom she knew. But I'm left to consider if her essense or soul existed and continues to exist in some form or another.
I wish I could commit the intellectual suicide required to believe that she is with Jesus, sipping cocktails and looking down on us. The idea of that being true saddens me. My mother has the universe sprawling out ahead of her and I would expect no limitations applied to where she could go. She should be bouding across the expanse, not hovering above a previous life.
Why is it that we as a people are so afraid of the unknown that the best afterlife we can conjure is a cushy spot to sit and look down upon the lives we no longer get to live? Is that the best we can do? Is this the best our religious leaders have to offer us? How utterly uninspiring.
Why are we taught that God is UP? Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of Astronomy knows that there is no "up." There is only out. Beyond the clouds is space. God isn't there. Why aren't we taught to look in? If God resides anywhere it's within.
When I sit and think about what will happen to me when I die, I try to become comfortable with the only form of immortality we can prove exists. We leave an impression on the world the moment we enter it. We touch people's lives, we effect the course of history both broad and personal. We can become a thread in the larger tapestry. Possibly, that's all we get. If I can become content with that possible outcome, why would I fear death? Certainly that's as noble a legacy as basking in Jesus for eternity.
In Hollywood, they have something called "want, settle, get." When you're casting for a part you WANT Tom Hanks, you'll settle for Hugh Jackman, but you end up getting Dennis Quaid.
When it comes to the afterlife, I want to travel the cosmos, experience the universe and touch the hand of God, I'll settle for being a part of the greater tapestry and history of mankind. I have no idea what I'm going to actually get.
My mother knows about my success. She knew about it, deep down, before it happened. Not because she's looking down from a heavenly perch. Rational or unexamined, her core belief was that her boys would grow into men, marry and have all the success, joy, love and loss that they deserve...and that belief was undisputable. I can trace the mark that belief left in our lives as easily as I can run my hand across the wood of this desk and feel it's grain.
That's substantial. That's immortality you can touch.
That's my mother.
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no subject
on 2004-11-18 02:25 am (UTC)And what's wrong with cocktails with Jesus? Man, I think that'd be pretty cool. Also, intellectual suicide? Aww, now that's not very nice.
Very provocative essay. Thanks for posting it. :)
no subject
on 2004-11-18 02:35 am (UTC)Yeah, intellectual suicide made me wince too. I understand, and to an extent agree to what he's saying, that you shouldn't just accept what someone's telling you, etc. etc. But it was rather harsh.
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
on further note
on 2004-11-18 09:16 pm (UTC)Thanks to everyone who wrote in yesterday, even those who disagree with my opinions. Many of you expressed concern at the "Jesus police" coming after me but that didn't happen.
Most people misunderstood my commnet about intellectual suicide as meaning I thought all Christians are stupid, which isn't true. I may have poorly expressed my point, which was that I can't believe in something that only holds up if I ignore what I know as a man living in the 21st century.
For example, in order for me to believe that there was one man and one woman named Adam and Eve who populated the earth, I would have to ignore what I know about genetics. I can't do that.
God gave you a brain because he wants you to think. That's all I was trying to say.