Are You Like Einstein? Do You Know the Mystery?
Do you have much mystery in your life… or in your soul?
Mind you: I’m not talking about worrying unknowns. Not talking about confusion over what’s happening in this Global Pandemic World, not talking about unanswerable questions that pester us in the dark - concerns for the future.
I’m talking about honest-to-goodness, wonder-filled mystery. They reality that there is more to life than what we can see. The awe-filling truth that we perceive and understand so very little of what is out there - in the cosmos, or even in a single rose petal. The beauty of basking in the amazing exquisiteness of the world - beyond what we can understand - and knowing our own smallness.
We moderns don’t go in much for mystery. Don’t have time for it; aren’t interested. We’re quicker and more efficient over here with our tangibles and our busyness, thank you.
And yet.
Here are words from Luci Shaw’s poem “Where Color is Spare”
Early, in the stillness before birds,
we feel our way, knowing
the slick of floor tiles in
the bathroom, the jut of corner,
the slant of closet door,
its handle like a friend's firm grip…
The reach for the railing
for confidence down the stairs.
The button we push to wake
the coffee maker.
The light switches
we decide to not use,
the mystery of shadow
surrounding us.
The smallest thing, you see, may speak to us of mystery. The shadow of the kitchen before the light switch goes on, as Luci shows. The gift of first seeing a quiet moment of transcendence, then choosing to embrace it. We embrace it entering in. holding on it for a moment or two - an act of the will.
Mystery is a gateway to wonder. And both are doorways onto beauty. The currencies of the soul.
Einstein said: “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed.”
I don’t want to live with soul-dimmed eyes. Do you?
These are the things we have lost - and are losing - when we give away our souls to technology compulsions. This beautiful interior landscape, the space in which our living is truly living, is what’s being chased away - crumb by crumb - every time I reach for my cell phone. My soul becomes distant, then numb, then dead through the portal of my ever-present screen.
The solutions are not simple, but they’re vital.
First we must see what we’re missing - the transcendence and wonder and glory that should be ours, better than the slick, dull glow of our devices. Then we must decide we want to cultivate it - that it’s worth the work. And finally we must cultivate practices that bring us to the place where beautiful mystery is again ours. We must re-learn what we have unlearned through the culture and activities of our modern age. We must learn of life in the present moment, to behold glory, to pay attention. Mystery is only found in the present.
I’m with Einstein - ditching the “good as dead” life, the life with no point. Here’s to the work of embracing the mysterious. Step 1: put down my phone.
You?
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