Brian's Reflection: February 3, 2009

There ain't no answer. There ain't gonna be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer.

- Gertrude Stein, who said famously "There is no there there", born on this day, 1874

Ah, Gertrude! What a fascinating person. I would love to have known her, to have sat drinking in her salon in Paris, with Alice passing me martinis of some sort (if Alice indeed did such things).

As I have said of a few unexpected people, Gertrude was a good theologian. People think that "religion" is going to give them answers. In fact, a lot of people have concocted so-called religions that purport to do just that. False religions, believe me, false religions! Be careful not to fall into the spider-web of any of those.

Gertrude has expressed the true nature of a valid religion. No answers. Only Questions - as the poet Rilke understood. Why is this? Because the god(esse)s respect us. They quite understand that we are intelligent, bright, inquisitive, and quite able to come up with the solutions we need for Life, even if those solutions are not absolute answers to Life  -  only to our own lives at any given moment.

You know:  I like it that way. Certainty about Answers mires you in quicksand. You just sink and drown in the illusion of certainty. Life will be much more authentic and lively and exciting and creative if you dance with the questions and the uncertainty.

Roll with the "punches". Keep reinventing yourself and the World. You will die happy, at just the right moment!

Brian+