Article 1 - "THROUGH THE VEIL OF VANITY" DECEMBER 2006 edition of First Church of The Streets

    How important is it for man to be concerned about worldly achievements? This may seem to have an obvious answer, that character is more important than tangible goods. But for the most part, culture would dictate that what man achieves on the outside is what makes the man. Who seems more successful, the rich lawyer with honors or the alcoholic on skid row? And yet, this person could be one and the same in different stages of life. Does what he do change what he is, just because culture regards him differently, and does that change what is in his own soul?

    It's easy to get caught in the image of who and what a person is. After all, this is a world of visual media, whether it be television, video, film or online viewing. Rationalization prevails on what happens to a person: hey, we need to trust but verify. Show me the proof of character. And since people spend so much time as kids trying to figure out what they are going to do when they get big, it's easy to tie in all this thinking and look to the visual proof. Material success, a nice looking family, and honor in one's profession looks like one put the necessary work in to cultivate the characteristics that would attract this kind of lifestyle.

    But of course, it is almost a cliche to describe the person who has everything on the outside but is poor on the inside. Sometimes, the pursuit of external power is nothing more than a denial of bankruptcy on the inside. It is as described in Ecclesiastes: "All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the soul is not satisfied" (Eccl 6:7). The chapter describes how one can have all the things in the world, but if his desire is such that it supplants the desire for goodness, then in the end, it is as though he has nothing, or as the writer of Ecclesiastes says, "a stillborn child is better than he" (Eccl 6:3).

    This leaves man in a quandary, as he is here in the world. Perhaps, for only a short time, but he is still in the world. It is not impossible for the drunk on the street to have more character and more knowledge of God than the successful lawyer, but because the drunk appears to have failed, at least by society's standards. To the outside eye, he violates spiritual laws by abusing his body with alcohol, and thus, doesn't have character. He can't "get it together". It might be easier to believe the successful lawyer has character, because at least his exterior conforms to worldly standards. What goes on in his soul may be more hidden away even to himself.

    And yet, the one may be more fear driven than the other. If today's successful lawyer was yesterday's bowery bum, he may be driven by a fear of returning to what he once was. Maybe today's successful lawyer is tomorrow's drunk, in which case, the person may be driven by demons that no amount of money can cover.

    But for the moment, having done everything he was supposed to do, whether it was going to rehab to reenter into life, or scrambles around doing everything right to evade his own darkness, it might be easy to say he is a man of honor. At the very least, he is a man with character enough to value hard work, ethically or otherwise. Sometimes the lack of ethics in a person, such as in the downfall of bigwigs the recent big companies such as Enron, comes long after material success has been achieved. But before the fall, it seems that one has goodness enough to work hard and apply oneself. The means may only be revealed later, and then it is like the person has accomplished nothing at all.

    And of course, this downfall doesn't have to be a fall from monetary prominence. One can delve into making a family, an art form, a good deed, and not even know that all this good work is a flight from fancy within. It can be the most deceptive ruse of all. Who could fault someone providing for one's children and parents, saying that it is just a mask for darkness? It is like criticizing Mother Theresa. Good deeds on the outside, to prove that one has a "good life", can be just as much fear driven as pure avarice. It can just as much be a deception away from one's soul: "For it is known that he is man; and he cannot contend with Him who he is mightier than he. Since there are many things that increase vanity, how is man the better?" (Eccl 6:10-11).

    One's connection with inner peace, a connection with God, or knowledge of what is good in all things has little with what he shows in real life. Which is not easy to grasp, because stereotypes provide a visual map to navigate one's way though a strange world. They are a form of visual proof that have become attenuated to the culture, even if they wind up stunting the growth that would be attained from seeing beyond the veil. Goodness has a way of being larger than any one person's perception, a strange mirage that may be so frightening in the shadows that comforting platitudes are used to keep it at bay.

    Many times, the comforting modes of culture, representing the glue to keep society together, can be misused as a weapon to run from, or even attack the disquiet in one's soul. The knowledge of this leads to a quandary. It is unearthed as a personal journey that can't be wished away by cliches and platitudes, which may be the most disquieting feature of all. No amount of outward success or conformity will truly be able to overshadow the vacuum of an empty soul, or ever fill it. To think otherwise is to be covered by the veil of vanity, and to proclaim that one can see.