"When nothing is forbidden, nothing is required. We are close to that today. I believe it what Thomas Merton predicted as 'organized despair.'"(R.Rohr "Radical Grace" p.12)
I am a person who is quite comfortable with ambiguity. I'm also a habitual liver in the grays of life. I tend to shun either or choices. And I'm not a big fan of rules. But what I also have come to realize is that without any kind of framework in which to think, feel, and grow, I am basically stuck. I begin to lose any sense of who I am, what I'm supposed to be doing.
And sometimes when I see myself as lost and aimless, I see very clearly what the root cause of that despair is. The lack of a framework. I don't' recall ever living in a world of "thou shalt not." Yet without some sort of limit, how can I know when I've gone too far? I don't recall having any expectations placed upon me. And yet without any expectations, how am I supposed to know what I'm attempting to achieve?
I don't wish to become someone whose life is governed by hard fast rules. I do have a strong enough moral compass to know when something is truly wrong. And as an intuitive I can even see when something may not be wrong at that given moment, but no good will ever come of following that path. I don't wish to become a slave to tasks, but I would like to be able to set some goals, personally and professionally to get me moving.
I think there is something to those words "organized despair." It is that inner voice crying out for meaning, purpose and identity.
Blessings,
Ed
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment