Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Realism is a bad word. In a sense
everything is realistic. I see no line
between the imaginary and the real.

There is no end. There is no beginning.
There is only the passion of life.

Federico Fellini, film director, genius, born
on this date, 1920

This is why I say that Fellini is a “genius”. And wise.

As to the first quote: I have preached this for decades. Thinking that there IS a difference between the “real” and the “imaginary” has been the curse of religion for a very long time. The human imagination is, in my view, the Sacred Fountain of Divine Wisdom. It is God’s primary instrument of self-revelation – since God and We are indivisible.

The Imagination is a Holy Language, originating in the deepest wells from which human character rises. That there has developed a huge gap between the two is, to put it in apocalyptic imagery, the “work of the Devil”. America, in particular, has fallen for it hook line and sinker. We suffer deeply and live in deep anguish and unreality because of it.

“There is only the passion of life”. Truer word was never spoken. To deny this truth is to give ultimate power to the demon of Death. Most religion has led us to pay over-attention to either the “beginning” or to the “end”. We ask: Will we be punished for our sins? What must we do to get to Heaven.” These are both paths leading only to Death. Love demands that we live in the Present. And I believe that this is the core message of the Death and Resurrection of the Christ.

Christians call the events of the Christ’s crucifixion, death and resurrection His “Passion”. The word “passion” means “to suffer with”, to “be joined with another in their struggle”. Fellini is, I believe, correct. Life is experienced fully only in embracing our connection with others. Especially with those “not like us”. This is, I believe, why Jesus spent His life with “outcasts and sinners”. Life reveals itself for us when we share the struggle and joy of our fellow human beings.

Brian+