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Wednesday's discussion revolved around our writings. Here are some beautiful thoughts Rachel wrote up in response to the book.
What do Vincent Van Gogh, Billie Holliday, Ernest Hemingway and Leonardo da Vinci have in common? These four human beings suffered sadness, tragedy, sorrow and pain. They also possessed great artistic talent showcased through painting, singing, writing and sculpture. The society, in which Jonas lives, would never have created these four incredible artists. There would be no trials to endure, no beauty to create, no music and no colors. It is so difficult for me to imagine a world without the David, Starry, Starry Night, For Whom the Bell Tolls and Lady Sings the Blues. A world void of pain, sorrow, happiness and love is also a world void of creativity. I was not blessed with artistic talents, but I was blessed with the sight, sound and touch to enjoy them. Emotions define us as human beings. To live is to feel pain, joy, sorrow, love. To create is one way to express emotions and to share them with the world.
A wise Jesuit priest once told me that by retreating from the pain and sorrow of the world, we are cheating ourselves out of a closer relationship with God. It may feel like an easy way out of feeling some of those undesired emotions, but that pain always festers inside of us. Once you shut yourself off from the violence, hunger and evil of this world; you are also shutting yourself off from the beauty, kindness and love. There is an opportunity to speak with God and to be guided by Him through the negative aspects of life. That Jesuit, Fr. John Staudenmaier, S.J., speaks about this opportunity in a talk on “Confronting Evil” (the MP3 of this talk can be found on the University of Detroit Mercy website, http://www.udmercy.edu/udmcasts/by-date/2007/confront-evil.htm.) He says, “Coming close so that I can stay in the violated places until I have been met there by God and those places can lose their toxicities and become part of the fabric of my life again. All this, however, presumes basic emotional health, which shows itself in my capacity to be moved by beauty and by sorrow."
Attending Fr. Staudenmaier’s talk on the “Geography of Prayer” was a turning point for me in my thinking. I had been trying to live my life in a way that would prevent me from experiencing the pain and suffering of this world. I caught myself in the same situation while reading this book, but it opened my eyes again to the fact that there is pain, there is ugliness and there is evil around us. We cannot hide from it. We have to meet it head on and have our Heavenly Father as our companion and guide. Shutting ourselves off from suffering is not part of God’s plan. Finding beauty in pain; finding love in hate is something that we are capable of doing as human beings. We are strong enough to handle all of the memories.
3 comments:
Beautifully said. I think when we retreat from the pain and suffering of the world we not only cut ourselves off from a relationship with God, we cut ourselves off from close, intimate human relationships. I think at the center of Heavenly Father's plan are some of the concepts you discussed - making joy out of the sorrows we suffer and embracing the enemies we endure with charity and forgiveness. It is a monumental task, but so much better than shutting off the opportunities of opposition. The key is having the help of the Savior, because like the Giver in the book, He alone bears all the sorrows, sins, and suffering of this world. Going beyond what the Giver does though, the Savior transforms sorrow into joy and restores our souls in the midst of the suffering. So we are allowed to feel what it feels like to be a God without being destroyed by the price that requires.
Thank you, Rachel. I am still mulling over the comment you made at our discussion, that retreating from the gunk in today's world would essentially be commiting the same evil as the community in the book...and therefore depriving yourself and others dependent on you from poignant, yet precious lessons about love and courage and faith and joy. It's SOOO hard. I'm almost in tears now at the very thought of it, and I have life comparatively easy! I was struck by Fr. Staudenmaier's word, "toxicity". It--the world and it's ills and pains--IS toxic. But also like the priest said, we need to live through it, and we need to do it with God.
Brilliant! I love it. And an interesting thought that by retreating from pain and suffering, we are committing the same evil...I like that. But it's hard to face some things head on! But yet necessary. As Joseph Smith said in the Lectures on Faith, "It is in vain for persons to fancy to themselves that they are heirs with those, or can be heirs with them, who have offered their all in sacrifice, and by this means obtained faith in God and favor with him so as to obtain eternal life, unless they in like manner offer unto him the same sacrifice, and through that offering obtain the knowledge that they are accepted of him."
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