SERIOUS GRAVITY (A SANITY PRIMER)

Oftentimes we search for signs....omens....clues....indicators that help us feel (to some degree) in control of our circumstances or at least give us confirmation that we are on the right path, to happiness, to success, to completion..Out of the blue, something happens, and a sign is given.... (A new job, the big move, unexpected illness or injury,  a new romance, a sudden death...a family crisis....a violent confrontation... a change of attitude...extreme stress or trauma, a lazy day sleeping in, a chance encounter with a stranger...falling off a ladder...being hit by a car...going to the opera) We do not let such major events simply "go by"  without grasping for some explanation of why...Perhaps from an early age, our religious beliefs* (assuming that any were passed down to us) serve as guideposts....prompts....catalysts for this tendency....not  the tenets of faith alone, not the bare rituals etc., but the feelings that underlie, the deep-seated notions (ethical/philo...

Once upon a time, way back when, there were those who paid lip-service to the higher ideals, but could never live up to them...They spoke of generosity and self-restraint, while privately obsessing over money and searching for the next secret thrill...They praised others for their "clean living" but privately ridiculed these "simpletons," "bores" and  "straight-arrows"... They spoke of love and friendship, but privately they gossiped and picked apart the flaws of their neighbors and co-workers...coveting and comparing notes, ah yes, holding grudges against their so-called friends. They kept their minor "bad habits" in check and in plain sight, but kept others well-hidden under the rug or in the closet...Filled with restless curiosity and wanderlust, they looked for places, for locales where the normal rules did not apply... Rhetorically, they lauded and affirmed the self-enforcement of chaste and civil comportment between the sexes, but...

What happens when the promised elixir (*) that has been touted for centuries as guaranteed to promote health, heal the wounds, cure disease, alleviate pain and prevent the noxious viruses from returning does not deliver on the hoped-for happy outcome? What is left for us to conclude when we observe the sick and infirm, the injured, the newly infected, bedridden souls, walking wounded,     still vulnerable to the onslaught of malignant microbes? Has the original situation fundamentally changed? Do we delude ourselves by claiming progress? Are we to say, behold the amazing power of the elixir that only here and there, haphazardly and unpredictably works its magic ? Because many have closed themselves off from the healing effects and thereby prove unworthy of a cure? Is that it? On the basis of such glaring evidence,  could one not reasonably begin to question the purpose of the elixir itself? And if the elixir has not been working out as advertised, have we in fact misunde...

Imagine a world of facts where everything is pinned down, more or less, at least for a time...Imagine facts that add to our knowledge, that make our words have backing, substance, facts that help describe and explain our complex interactions, facts that illuminate and advance our sense of reality, facts that situate us within a world and give us some sense of a base camp, as on a mountain that is really there, that cannot simply be wished away...Imagine the physicality of facts that perception confirms, the externality of facts that take us outside ourselves. Imagine the higher plane of facts in which ideas reside. Imagine psychological facts and mental states and moral claims as all having their factual basis. Imagine facts that get written down and recorded for posterity, facts that make their mark upon us from having lived through this ordeal - that cannot be denied, let alone forgotten, facts that are known, felt, grasped, remembered, ruminated upon, facts that give hope, that make...

The mechanisms of repression continue their grind, like the inner workings of a clock....In an age of openness and complete transparency, no less...What is being repressed and why? Even now, at a time when trolls spew venom from their basement laptops...what is there that still must be kept buried? Thoughts that are considered vagaries,   forbidden, alien, unlawful, creepy, outrageous, unlucky. .. thoughts that do not represent " who we are "... Career-ending thoughts....hostile, angry, reckless thoughts.... ugly, twisted, bestial thoughts, ... Thoughts that disparage and drag down others, thoughts that shame and lay blame to.... hostility toward the brighter lights, covetous thoughts meant to demean....Thoughts that circle around an unseemly topic...obsessing over car crashes, prison conditions, serial crime, ....an unhealthy fixation on wild-fires and boating accidents,  poison and torture, hoarders in houses and the morbidly obese, missing persons,  runaways, vaga...