Of Whales and the Tension of Life

I’ve had a lot on my mind lately. And most of it has had to do with whales. I know, I know, Sexsmith is not exactly a place of oceanic inspiration, never mind the incredible creatures of the deep. This topic didn’t grow from gazing out at the flowing golden waves of the wheat fields. It came from a rather plain and typical source. Reading Moby Dick.
This book has introduced many fascinating things to me surrounding whales, their being hunted, and of those hunting them. But there’s one concept in particular, that is stuck in my head. A whale has a very weird face. The obvious striking feature to that regard is its lack of a nose. The mouth is also somewhat removed and lowered to the farthest possible regions of the face. And then we come to the intriguing positioning of the eyes. Here we have two eyes, very much on each side of the whale. Imagine clearly watching a whale approach you head on. A 20ft. faceless mouth! But my point is not made from the human perspective, but that of the whale. Image your two eyes by your ears. And not being able to see one single panoramic picture but two distinct smaller pictures, separated by darkness straight ahead of you. That is strange enough, but come with me further and look out of those eyes. On the left side, with one eye, you see a dolphin swimming along with you. And with your right eye, you see the submerged hull of a whaling vessel. And that is what blows my top! The most intelligent human brain is unable to focus on two objects at once, but this phenomena does not drive the whale mad. How can the whale both recognize the dolphin beside him to be his good friend Flipper, while simultaneously inspecting the possible threat of the ship on his starboard side? This mystery will remain until I choose to google it, but I will let it simmer as it propels me to consider larger things than whales.
I regularly hear that living well is to have a balanced life. To have the perfect proportions regarding not only food, but relationships, time spent, finances, and all things that make up life. But my life experience, as short as it may be, seems to contradict life as a pie chart. Instead, quite often I feel like a human brain in a whale body. Trying to concentrate on two things at once. Less of balancing scales and more like a tug-of-war rope. For example, I don’t think family and work could ever be balanced. They necessarily grasp for more and more of you. The appropriate way to live then, is to accept this tension...feeling the pull from both sides. Of course there is not always even ground on each side, nor should there be. Another example of this in the Christian experience of both Fearing and Loving God. Or what about Responsibility and Freedom. There are many other examples, but the point is that we are not whales. And we must accept the tension, the pull, from both sides as very needed, very necessary...

The End of Mystery

The cabinet belonged in the office of 1980's blue collar management, and not the bedroom of a 9 yr. old. But it was there, I'm sure, because my parents didn't want it in their room, nor any of the "public" areas of our house. The coolest aspect of this particular cabinet was that there was a horizontally hinged shelf that made a terrifically deep-set desk when opened. The desk was great for a myriad of things, but due to the particular nature of certain gifts during a certain period of time, it quickly became the center of KolebaSon Forensics. Equipped with an ancient 20 lb. microscope, a calculator, an assortment of coloured pens, and a notepad, that cabinet provided the perfect environment for solving all the mysteries my brain could conjure up. And so it began. That cabinet stimulated natural tendencies within myself to understand and make sense of things. To learn how things work and fix them. In essence, that cabinet was the training ground which enabled me to become the skillful mystery-killer I am today.
G.K. Chesterton wrote: Mysticism keeps men sane. As long as you have mystery, you have health; when you destroy mystery, you create morbidity.
My life has been characterized by understanding, making sense of something, and communicating my discovery. A state of mystery is a state of weakness. And holding on to the mysterious, never mind worshipping it, seems repulsive.
Chesterton keeps pushing: The whole secret of mysticism is this: that man can understand everything by the help of what he does not understand.
Is much of the current struggle of faith due to an inability to accept mystery, to be labeled as a mystic, to cherish that which is mysterious? Might our cabinets contain more fairytales...

The Tethering of Thoughts

I have three kites. And hey, if you have a $1 kite you have to use it. So I did. Why is Sexsmith not hosting global kite flying competitions? Is there a more consistently windy place on the planet? After flying the kite with my daughter, I quickly scribbled down "Kite Flying" on my list of Hobbies-I'd-Like-to-Get-Into-But-Realistically-Never-Will. It was right below "Spelunking" and "Surfing". What I enjoy the most about flying a kite is the struggle of harnessing something wild. Training the kite to do what it's supposed to rather than flail around frantically, dive-bombing innocent children like an Avatarian bird of prey. Albeit, I might be exaggerating here concerning my $1 kites...but the thrill of sky fishing has recently illustrated a desire of mine. The tethering of my thoughts. Thought's, both brilliant and stupid, come and go. They fly haphazardly within our minds, careening this way and that, sometimes close enough to touch, but only for seconds it seems, as they swoop and climb higher and higher, drifting out of sight/mind. They are wild, like kites without strings. But this tethering I'm describing is not a domesticating of our thoughts, our attempt to reshape them. Rather, it's the enabling or allowing of our thoughts to reshape us. And in order for that to happen, we need to hold on to our thoughts. We need to be the connecting point between the sky of transcendent ideas and the earth of reality and living. In our hands holding tightly to those thoughts that would escape us and be lost forever, and our feet being grounded in the dirt of life and time. That is the purpose of this blog: to give substance to our thoughts. To give them more than a fleeting moment. To test our thoughts in the arena of experience. To discern, holding on to what is true and cutting loose what is false. Let us encourage one another as we stand together, enjoying the struggle of flying kites.