Daily Life Lessons from Rabbi Heschel
Day 200
“The power of being human is easily dissolved in the process of excessive trivialization. Banality and triteness, the by-product of repetitiveness, continue to strangle or corrode the sense of significant being.” (Who is Man pg. 114-5)
Reading this first sentence reminds us of the power of the unimportant and the power of deception and mendacity. It also reminds us of the power that people who want us to engage with the unimportant and who use deception and mendacity with us in order to help us stay in this process of the unimportant over us. I am embarrassed at how, so many of smart people, so many caring people get caught up in fighting with these deceivers and defending against their mendacity and have our power to make positive changes constantly be diminished. We see this in our world all the time, people will make a statement, cause a ruckus in a certain area of life so we get all involved in it so we miss the important things that are happening in another area. This is a trademark of a con, a lie, a scheme as we all witnessed with Trump and his gang. We still see it in the political landscape, the Supreme Court’s supposed decision on Roe v Wade is taking our eyes off the ways Clarence Thomas and his wife have truly violated the separation of powers between branches, the impartiality of the Court and the tearing down of the rule of law that Thomas so loudly praises. It is precisely those who are the loudest defenders that are often the greatest perpetrators of what they are supposedly defending. We have seen this throughout the millennia, remember Brutus and Mark Anthony? Yet, while it is easy to take shots at politicians and government workers, many of whom are champs at engaging us in excessive trivializations rather than caring about the product and the good we can/are doing, it is more important to look at our selves.
We are so easily pushed into the trivial by our thinking and our emotions because of our lack of maturity, I believe. We are not spiritual mature enough to fight off the trivialities that consume our thinking and feeling. Herein lies the issue, as I am understanding these words from Rabbi Heschel today. The issue of abortion is a red herring, I believe, in the war against people of color, women, anyone not “christian” in the ways the right-wing fanatics think one should be. By getting involved in the trivial matters surrounding abortion rights, we are missing the core issues-do white men have control over women and every aspect of their lives? Do white men have control over the lives of anyone who isn’t a “christian” according to their viewpoint? Is America becoming a “christian” nation where everyone has to live under “christian” law as these charlatans dictate it? We have lost the power to engage in these core issues because we have become so bogged down in and overwhelmed by the continuous assault on our sense of justice, kindness, love and truth. We are suffering from a fatigue that no amount of sleep will cure, it is, I believe a spiritual fatigue, our spirits, our souls have been under assault for years and we are just too overcome with the trivial to have enough energy to battle the real war. As we see in Ukraine, it takes enormous energy to fight the monster and, rather than refuting Putin’s lies, they are first and foremost fighting Putin’s soldiers.
This is what we have to do, we have to fight the soldiers of these liars, cons, schemers and show them what they are really fighting for, someone else’s power, someone else’s fear of being seen for who and what they are. We have to leave the battlefield of the trivial by growing our spiritual maturity, by raising up our soul and the souls of all around us so we can battle for decency, kindness, truth, justice, mercy, etc .
In recovery, we keep reminding ourselves of our primary purpose, to be in recovery and to help another achieve recovery. Doing this allows us to stay focused on the prize, on the goal, on the path and on our own spiritual growth, remembering we are seeking spiritual progress, not spiritual perfection.
I see where I fell prey to this process of trivialization often and am still susceptible to it. I believe more than anything else in my life, this has caused me the most trouble and is the root of most of my problems. I think that every issue is a battlefield I have to engage in and in doing so, I lost the energy and the insight, the vision and the path to actually battle the most important issues. I realize today that in doing so, I weakened myself and my ability to be heard, seen and instead I was ignored and put off with “here he goes again”. While I believed every fight was worth it, reading this sentence today teaches me it isn’t. I did not ‘pick my battles’ and therefore did not have the strength and the credibility evidently to win the most important one of my career. While I there is responsibility all around, I have to take mine. I was the architect of my own defeat because I seemed, at times, to many people like Chicken Little, the sky was always falling. I know where this came from, my belief that every battle mattered and some, didn’t matter as much as others. I am sorry for the pain caused by my actions, I am sorry for the harm I caused my wife and others, by this need to engage in trivial actions and I have learned and am learning how to pick my battles now. God Bless and Stay safe, Rabbi Mark