“Go placidly amid the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence…”
Oddly enough these timeless words begin the immortal literary piece, “Desiderata,” written thousands of years ago. One might wonder what noise and haste there was then in comparison with today’s!
One clear distinction is that, in our scientific and technological maturity, in haste we have become a “fast-food, quick-fix, throw-away society of convenience. And in our yet spiritual infancy we have become a genetic society that is merely a cheaper reproduction of the real thing–as with prescribed medications.
In modern-day haste there is no time for cooking, eating and clearing away dishes, etc., so fast-food corporations and eateries have become the norm as well as multi-$Billion alternatives. We also use throw-away paper plates, cups, eating utensils, table covers, diapers and even cameras–and the list goes on and on, all in the line of convenience and “progress.”
Unfortunately this trend continues to also include more spiritual-life threatening things as attitudes, motivation, relationships and especially marriages.
The divorce rate many years ago was practically non-existent, considered disgraceful in its failure by either party. This audacious action, once generally associated with only the rich &/or famous who could survive such moral indiscretion, has today become the norm among all socio-economic levels. And, with the inevitable occurrence of any major problem or inconvenience, the marriage too easily becomes just another “throw-away, totally oblivious of the potential long-term consequences–especially upon any innocent children involved!
The example of how we handle problems is what truly defines us throughout life. If we simply turn our backs and walk away from the biggest and most serious problems, our lesson to posterity is that anything inconvenient, time-consuming or that may require special effort or sacrifice should be simply discarded–or at least “put on “indefinite.”
As each generation continues to add its own respective interpretation to this “don’t give- a_D” attitude, we ultimately reap the present-day detioriating society, engaged primarily in “saving the hides” of those at the top.
A clear distinction today is found especially in Baha’i Holy Faith marriage vows, made not to one another but to God, reading thusly: “The bond that unites hearts most perfectly is loyalty. True lovers must show forth the utmost faithfulness, one to another. You must dedicate your knowledge, your talents, your fortunes, your titles, your bodies and your spirits to God and to each other. Let your hearts be as spacious as the universe of God. Allow no trace of jealousy to come between you for jealousy, like unto poison, vitiates the very essence of love. Let not the ephemeral and accidents of this changing life cause a riff between you. When differences arise, take counsel together in secret, lest others magnify a speck into a mountain.
Harbor not in your hearts any grievance, but rather explain its nature to each other with such frankness and understanding that it will disappear, leaving no remembrance. Choose fellowship and amity and turn away from jealousy and hypocrisy. Live in such harmony that others may take your lives as an example…” as your posterity inevitably will regardless of the example!
The type of example we wish to be remembered by, however, is up to US! Will we be remembered among the masses of those content to live “thermometer” lives, merely registering the climate about us, or will we “dare to be different” by becoming thermostats that set the climate we would prefer to live in–now and hereafter–while The Choice is Still Ours?
