The Wisdom of Futility: Are You Trying to Break Through a Closed Window? (By Alex Pattakos): Buzz Buzz Buzz - there's another fly banging against a closed window... Have you ever seen a dead fly on a windowsill? Sure you have. At one time or another, I bet that you've also seen a fly buzzing so frantically against a closed window that it looked like it was trying to escape from prison. Drawn by the seductive light outside and fixated on what seemed to be its one and only path to freedom, the fly eventually succumbed to forces greater than its own. Ironically, many of these poor souls - and I'm still talking about flies- - appear completely unaware that there were other "escape" routes available to them, such as an open door or window on the other side of the same room!
Although I've freed many flies from captivity over the years, I've also witnessed the remains of many who obviously weren't so fortunate. Indeed, it doesn't take long for many windowsills, especially around spring cleaning time, to look like graveyards for flies whose lives ended tragically and prematurely due to basic instincts that did not in the final analysis serve their best interests or highest good. Existentially-challenged, flies don't have the capacity to learn from experience, gain insight into their personal circumstances, and grow or consciously evolve as a result. Flies, in other words, appear to be doomed to repeat their past mistakes no matter what or how dire the consequences!
Now think about how the fly and the behavior just described represent so much of life as it is lived by us - human beings. As we begin 2011 this kind of thought-provoking exercise is especially fitting and may help to put those "New Year Resolutions," along with the stresses and challenges at this time of year, into their proper context. Imagine for a moment that you are now staring at a dead fly on a windowsill. What thoughts or images about life in general and about your life in particular fill your mind? I'm not asking you to become the character played by Jeff Goldblum in the 1986 movie, "The Fly," only to reflect upon what life from a fly's perspective may have to do with the meaning of your life.
Let me try to jumpstart your thinking. I think that we all can agree that the fly expended or exhausted all of its life energy on a futile, joyless undertaking. Let's face it, there was no way that the fly was going to break through the closed glass window, even though the view from outside may have been very attractive and seductive. Whatever the fly's "vision" at the time, there was no way that it was going to achieve its ultimate aim. Metaphorically-speaking the windowsill became the fly's "field of dreams" that would never be realized. Despite the fly's unrelenting, Herculean efforts to reach its goal on the other side of the window, freedom proved to be an illusion that was out of reach. Indeed, unbeknownst to the fly, things are not always what they seem! And, sadly, because it is incapable of stopping, listening and learning from its predicament, it isn't able to take corrective action that may save and extend its life.
So what does this little fly teach us about life? To be sure, we all know people who live their lives like this fly did! You know, people trying to get "out" through a closed window. We may even know people who "died" in mind, body, and/or spirit trying to do so! What seemed like a desirable "exit strategy," one that promised true freedom and a better quality of life, proved not to be one after all. These poor souls (now I am referring to people not flies) invested everything they had into getting through the closed window but were only able to die trying. And like the fly who died on the windowsill, these individuals, despite giving all they had, ended up leaving it on their field of dreams unfulfilled; that is, on the windowsill of life.
Fortunately, we are not flies even if we sometimes behave like one. As humans, we do have the innate capacity to learn, to be creative, and to grow in productive, meaningful ways. Whereas the fly never heard someone say, "Hey fly, you cannot get through that window, it's crazy to keep trying, so why don't you try the door or something else," I suspect that over the course of our lives, each of us has received such guidance from someone at some time. Moreover, because we are blessed with reasoning (i.e., critical thinking) and creative abilities, we've also been able to navigate our way through life's challenges and learn practical lessons along the way. These life lessons, in turn, provide a platform for future thinking and action enabling us to learn and grow further as a result. As we know, flies do not have such capacity and therefore don't share the same manifest destiny as humans, unless of course the latter choose to behave like flies!
Unlike the fly who saw the window as a way out and was determined to go through the window even if it killed it (and it did kill it), we have not only the freedom of will, but also a will to meaning that, if we use these powerful and uniquely human resources, can lead us to unlimited possibilities. And while we may not always have control over the circumstances within which we find ourselves, we always have the ultimate freedom to choose how we will respond to them, even if only through our choice of attitude. Fortunately, in most cases, we can do more than simply exercise the freedom to choose our attitude towards a situation confronting us. Unlike the fly, we have options; that is, creative license to find alternatives to the closed windows that separate and prevent us from where we'd like to go. Equipped with the benefits of faith and reason, we can get to our destination even if it means rethinking our strategy and taking a course that is much different and maybe less obvious than the window to nowhere. And because we are human, we have the added benefit of enjoying and discovering the deeper meaning of the journey too. So as 2011 begins, let it be the year you, like the fly, don't die on the windowsill of life. Instead, let 2011 be your year to explore other options, other routes, and live life to the fullest.
Our opinions shape attitude toward life, other people (by Beth Pratt): I’m not a horror movie watcher, but I can guess that serving up a gigantic spider to catch human-sized prey is almost certainly a feature of some such film. Until the north wind blows decisively colder weather our way, we find it difficult to walk outside without tangling with some remnant of a spider’s web. Only our size enables us to escape the silky, sticky bond.
Daily brushing away of the webs does not deter the spider from spinning the filament again a few hours later in the same location. I’m not particularly afraid of spiders, but I do like to keep my distance from the wolf spider and the tarantula because they can jump. I really hate to get a near-invisible piece of the web wrapped around an arm or in my hair when I inadvertently walk through one of their lines cast from whatever object is handy to a plant, an outside chair or door.
Suddenly, I begin to feel as if spiders are crawling on my head or my neck although I’ve never found that to be the case. The spider is generally more afraid of me than vice versa. Both of us want nothing more than to be left alone by the other, I’m sure. Once a garden spider glues its woven birthing sack to the window frame, there is little that can dislodge it. That garden spider is a master weaver. No stream of water from a hose will dislodge the silken bed that cradles its offspring. Thus, in the fall, window cleaning becomes a more tedious chore.
I was thinking of that spider’s tenacity in protecting its progeny when it occurred to me that we weave similar protections around our own opinions with silken threads of certainty. Those opinions, right or wrong, shape our attitude toward other people and life in general. We typically value our opinions over factual information and resist what might dislodge or reshape our longstanding opinions. That can be good or bad, depending on how we arrived at our opinion. Interestingly, the opinions we cling to most tightly may be borrowed from others, the result of emotional attachment rather than the result of our own observations or inquiry.
Our human nature is more often to seek comfort in what we believe to be the known rather than to ask too many questions. We fear stepping into the realm of the unknown or the untried. Thus, it is no mystery that it takes the extreme pain of crisis to move us beyond the our opinions of the moment to seek truth.. We really do prefer to let someone else take the risk of being wrong. One of the more ridiculous attitudes that has developed is that truth is relative. In other words, I can have my truth and you can have your truth with both equal in value.
Not so. In a free society, we grant each other the right to disagree, but that right does not mean that truth does not matter. Half-truths are the basic design of all propaganda meant to shape opinion in favor of some political or personal end. That is because it is so much easier to deceive people when you include just enough of a familiar concept, combining it into a persuasive argument to achieve your goal.
Many years ago we talked to an insurance salesman who sold us on taking out a small life insurance policy for each of our preschoolers. We had questions. He had answers. But it wasn’t until we received the policy and read the small print that we realized he had told us what he thought would sell the policy rather than answering truthfully. We canceled the policy immediately, citing the misinformation we were given. Because the company was an ethical business, our money was returned. We learned from that experience a similar lesson to what my dad had told me about the Bible when I was young – “Don’t take someone’s word for what it says. Read it for yourself.” In other words, don’t derive your opinions or take action based entirely on what someone says, but on personal knowledge and study. Then, when you hear various interpretations, you can judge the value by what you know to be true.
My dad enjoyed hearing what others thought. He was humble about his considerable knowledge. He thought people who went to college or seminary knew more. Some did, most didn’t. The late Arnold Maeker reminded me of my dad. He had that gentle spirit and knowledge of spiritual matters. His office was across the street from The A-J for years. When time allowed, we would occasionally have long discussions about the state of religion versus faith.
Maeker and his partner designed the worship space at my church, which was built in the mid-1960s. Later, I learned the respect in which he was held in local, state and national Baptist life. He was a wise and good man. I could name others of similar character and influence who crossed my path during the 25 years as religion editor, but the point is the importance of understanding the difference between opinion and truth. Opinion should change with credible evidence. Truth is unchanging. Real truth-seekers do not fear engaging in the conversation because they are bigger than the web of deceit that is ever present and practiced in the world.
