Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Nothing is ever the same as they said it was.

Diane Arbus, photographer, social commentator;
she was born on this date, March 14, 1923
[ 23 years before I was … my God! ]
[ And today I saw a doc who was born in 1970 …
24 years before I was … my God! ]


“They”. That should be a warning. The reality is that there is always an anonymous “they” who seem to control (or be fighting to control) what Life is or should be. I completely and adamantly disagree. We should not give the “theys” that power. “They” are often anti-Life, anti-Freedom, anti-Diversity. And usually closed to the fact that Life expands day by day… that that’s the very nature of Life.

I think that this is the very character of Life … it is “never the same as they said it was”. If it were the same, that would be Death, stasis. Life is meant to change, open, develop. The great symbol of this is Jesus: He constantly demanded Change. Constantly He pointed out what gave Life and what denied Life.

I rejoice that “nothing is ever the same as they said it was”. People – usually people with a personal power gain to make - say it’s brutal, tribal, divided, etc. I completely disagree. That’s what many would have us think. But people like Jesus come along and challenge that assumption, that teaching. Jesus says simply: LOVE. And if we will do that, we instantly discover that Life is tender, Shared, One. To do this would be only to manifest what, at the core, we all know: we are One human family in the context of the mystery of Love.

Diane challenges us. Look at each human being … and find yourself in that person.

Believe me, from my experience: each of us is there in the other.

Brian+