Article 1 - "A SEASON FOR ALL" by Jessica Kuzmier August 2007 edition of First Church of The Streets

     It's all the rage nowadays, at least in a lot of Western circles, to "create one's own experience." The theory is that if one thinks positive, positive things will happen. If you act in kindness, it comes back to you. If you build it, they will come. A direct correlation between sowing and reaping yielding immediate results: plan, act, reap.

     This kind of mentality is something that is great for this quick world where things change in an instant, and many decisions have to be made quickly. If you want results, put the work in so the report can be discussed and implemented by the end of the day. Get the product line ready now, so we can e-mail our customers in Beijing. Download your favorite tunes on I-Pods so you can listen to them instantly. Repercussions and results of one's actions can be felt around the world in one keystroke. Just talk to the guy who determines when the nuclear arsenal is unleashed with a nod.

     All this personal responsibility and instant karma just add action can overwhelm a person. It's like no matter what happens to the person, good or bad, can be traced to some action or thought process engaged in, from this lifetime and not to make up for some past life. Don't like what's going on in your life? Change a muscle, move a thought. It's up to you to change your world, right here, right now.

     Of course, this whole snappy philosophy runs into numerous snags along the way. Witness the guy who's a jerk to his family and neighbors as he's rewarded for his insolence by getting a huge bonus at work with a corner office in Paris. Compare that to the guy who's worked hard his whole life, known to all as the nicest guy in the world, as he loses his house and livelihood in a Kansas tornado. No matter how much the go-getter mentality would like to have its listeners believe, sometimes stuff happens. Life isn't fair, regardless of what mantra one whistles. Espousing love for all doesn't always lead directly to love received by all. Look what happened to Jesus, St. Paul, Dr. Martin Luther King, and Mahatma Gandhi, to name a few.

     The Preacher noticed this phenomenon as he contemplated wisdom: "One event happens to the righteous and the wicked...this is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one thing happens to all" (Eccl. 9 2-3, NKJV). The randomness of life doesn't seem to preclude goodness or hard work, whether religious or not. It would seem to the Preacher that acting in goodness to ward off perdition is a complete waste of time.

     This, of course, makes sense in a larger way. Why wouldn't a drought or a war affect all of a region's inhabitants, regardless of lifestyle? The idea that one can stave off mass disaster for himself in a singular fashion would be like a dinosaur not being killed by the asteroid because he knew what leaf to eat. Certainly, no one has figured out a way to circumvent the inevitable appointment with death. Maybe the date has been postponed, but not averted. No mental strategy has truly conquered that.

     If life is that capricious, what's the purpose of formulating any strategy at all? Life that independent of management becomes one big whim, a fat joke, a fatalistic encounter. To anyone who has designed something and seen it work, debunking cause and effect sounds like hogwash. Of course one can control destiny. How does anything get done otherwise? There's a plan, and then execution, and backup. A lot of stuff has been able to get done with this mentality. There wouldn't be modern civilization without it. Heck, ancient Sumer probably wouldn't have gotten itself going either. The Preacher wouldn't have had the opportunity to communicate his pessimism if there wasn't a civilization to allow it. That takes plans, plans that work. Life isn't as arbitrary as that. And if one can plan for communication like the Preacher did in his treatise, why not anything else? Let's move a mountain with a thought. That's in the same book as the Preacher wrote in, right?

     This is the thing with it all. Jesus probably wasn't referring to anything which resulted in controlling other people, or even the events that are in one's viewfinder. The ability to move mountains or sowing what one reaps has little to do with successful businesses and children with rosy health. After all, there are a lot of devout Christians being massacred in Darfur right now. An evangelical Christian American businessman who happens to be doing well financially may have more than a positive attitude towards Jesus to thank for his financial success. Some might espouse the idea that God chose him to have financial success so he could better help his Christian brothers and sisters suffering in Darfur, China, or other places of religious persecution. But that doesn't take away the fact that his Christian brothers and sisters are suffering to begin with. What have they done or not done? Additionally, at the same time as this businessman may have gotten to where he did by his faith, he is aware of those who have reached their pinnacle through cheating. This makes his success seem like something other than a divine reward of his good work. After all, what about his pernicious colleagues?

     As the Preacher tells it, one lives a good life not to avoid suffering, but to better enjoy what he has, because one never knows when the bad days will come, or when one will die: "Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has accepted all of your works....let your head lack no oil...live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun" (Eccl. 9: 7-9). This is the epitome of the proverbial "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die" mentality. The man of goodness is aware of the fleeting nature of life, and by choosing virtue and wisdom over wickedness, he has the space and time to see beauty in what is around him. A person mired in darkness may not be able to enjoy his life or what God or nature has created because he's too afraid of having life catch up to him. This can be the man who has cheated everyone. Or, more subtly, a woman is so used to being victimized she doesn't know how to step out of her fear to free herself. In this case, goodness is something that eludes her because she looks to false idols such as other people to give it to her, rather than look to the God of her choosing or relying on her own inner strength and wisdom.

     On the other hand, the person of virtue, like Job defending himself to his friends, knows his conscience is clear and can appreciate with clear conscience what he has. This vindication is more than other people's approval or making some exterior grade. After all, many who are abused are blamed for nearly everything; those who are bullied without a protector can feel as weighted down, perhaps on a conscious level even more so, than those who relish malfeasance and have no qualms on visiting it on others. Fear tends to be the root of all darkness, however it is masked. Whether "victim" or "culprit", this fear must be weeded out of one's soul to find freedom.

     Once fear is absolved, life can be seen for the blessing it is, regardless of external circumstances. In this respect, the "one thing that happens to all" can be transformed. Through faith in God, the universe, the Tao, the thread of life, or one's innate mind, a person can transform life no matter what the circumstances. In that respect, his mind has created the reality that he has sought, for his mind and soul are the reality he experiences. A person's virtue and wisdom will change her life, even if no one else pays attention to her transformation. But for this person, it is enough to be able to see oneself for who really is there.