Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 102
Wow, this is the 4th day of Elul, the 4th day of the Rabbis demanding of We the People to take “a searching and fearless inventory”, as we say in AA, to see where we are in our lives, to check in and evaluate our progress, our retardation in living the life we created for. It is an exhilarating process and one that brings all of We the People to a place of humility, bringing us back to connection, to returning to our rightful place, to moving the ball forward on our life’s purpose and mission, bringing us to see our subterfuges, our lies, our mendacity, etc, as well.
In their song “Sounds of Silence”, Simon and Garfunkel point out the issue that faces us today, 60+ years ago Paul Simon was able to articulate what was happening in the USA and, unfortunately, still is. “People talking without speaking, People hearing without listening, People writing songs that voices never shared, And no one dared Disturb the sound of silence”. This is the month designated for all of We the People who continue to hide from “speaking”, combat “listening”, keep their “voices” quiet, and continue to “silence” the call of their soul, the demand of the Voice on Sinai each and every day. AND, We GET to end these self-deceptions, We get to return home this month, and We get to reconnect with self, with another(s), with the force in the universe! This is the GOOD NEWS!!
The rest of the story is: to learn how to engage in “speaking, listening”, sharing our “voices”, disturbing the “sound of silence”. This seems to be the issue that has haunted and daunted human beings since the time of Adam and Eve. The “sin” of the Garden of Eden was NOT eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, it WAS HIDING/NOT SPEAKING UP when God called out to them, it WAS not listening to God’s words and realizing they were not ready for this knowledge, It was the beginning of being controlled by “the sound of silence” rather than the sound of our soul. Unfortunately, this tradition is alive and well, having been fed and nourished all these years, in this moment.
We the People see this tradition in the advertising that bombards us, in the way the politicians talk, in the ways we ignore the call of the strangers, the needy, the poor, and in the silence we endure and keep as democracy is assaulted, the lessons of freedom are ignored, and the laws of common decency, the ways to BE HOLY, the words of Christ, the words of the Bible, are bastardized, this is the Hillul HaShem we the people are either promoting, participating in, going along with or fighting. It is not “those” people who are the problem, as Elul comes to inform us, it is We the People who are continuing to be afraid to “disturb the sound of silence”.
To “disturb the sound of silence” is to let go of the buttoned-up image we have created for our Self, to smash the idols we have so meticulously built, to destroy the myriad of places where we hide from our truth, from speaking from our souls, speaking from our intuitive mind, listening to the Call of what is being said, not just the words, doing as Judah did with Joseph and letting someone “speak in our ears”. In our finding our authentic voice, We the People will once again write songs like Paul Simon, like “Sound of Silence” and our voices will rise up and be heard like the “shot heard around the world” and We the People will begin another revolution, the revolution of Freedom from the Bondage of Self, the revolution of Freedom to Speak TRUTH, no matter what, the revolution of Standing up for the Voiceless and Powerless, the revolution of Caring for the Needy, loving the Stranger, the revolution of NO-SCAPEGOATING, the revolution of “Becoming the soul you/I are/am created to be”, the revolution of Kindness, of Love, of Holiness, of Charity, of Justice FOR ALL, of Mercy, of RETURNING home.
This is what has happened, is happening to me because I made a decision to “disturb the sound of silence”. It is not an easy decision to make, I had to be in a jail cell for the umpteenth time in order to be able to be “listening” not just hearing, to “speaking”, not just talking, to not cover up my spiritual awakening with a return to “the sound of silence”. In these 39+ years since that experience, I have used the month of Elul to continue to “disturb the sound of silence” that keeps intruding in on me like a bad penny, keeps coming back and disguises itself so well that I am not aware I am in it until something shakes me awake, which the month of Elul always does. To the people who believe I heard them and did not listen, I am sorry, to the people who thought I was just talking and not speaking to them, I apologize, to the people who felt ignored because “the sound of silence” was controlling me, I ask for forgiveness for all of these ways I fell prey to.
ACTION STEP:
Make a list of the “sound of silence” you fall prey to, the times and ways you hear and don’t listen, talk and don’t speak, etc.
God Bless, Stop Ghosting God, Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark