Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 106
“And the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made” is pretty remarkable given the times we were in when this was written, given that Vietnam had not yet exploded, it was in the aftermath of JKF’s assassination, and LBJ was working on the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the Great Society. What keeps striking me over and over agin is Paul Simon’s ability to SEE what the rest of us couldn’t, to try and speak to us even though we the people were not hearing so well, to not be deterred by any of this, much like the prophets of old. AND WE THE PEOPLE still are not listening, still not touching the “sound of silence”, still bowing and praying to “the neon god they/we made”. WTF, PEOPLE!
Today is the 8th day of Elul, it is one week since we began this dive into our SELF, this exercise to STOP GHOSTING OUR SELF, to live into “the soul we are created to be” rather than follow the bullshit script we have made up for our self or the one that has been foisted upon us by another(s), by life. This is the choice and the opportunity that this month, really any day/week/month, gives us with the full force of forgiveness, compassion, mercy overwhelming every other spiritual force, even and especially “strict justice”. When we the people seek to be forgiven by making a “searching and fearless inventory”, as we say in AA, make the amends we can and must, then forgiveness is granted either by the person we have harmed and/or God. We the People are commanded to not hold resentments, to forgive easily, to welcome people back in our lives as we want to be welcomed back into the lives of the people we have harmed, as we want to be welcomed back into the Covenant with God after we have harmed, defamed, ignored, disobeyed God’s Will!
This 8th day of Elul is our “circumcision day”, it is the day when we have to “circumcise the foreskin of our hearts” as Moses commands us to do in Deuteronomy, just like we welcome the baby boy into the covenant on the 8th day-so too do we welcome ourselves back into the covenant as we engage in the work of Elul. On this 8th day, We the People admit our guilt for bowing and praying to “the neon god we/they made”, just as the Israelites in the desert built the Golden Calf. The difference, however, is the people in the desert were newly freed slaves and their leader had been gone for 12 hours longer than they thought he was supposed to be gone and were bereft that he would not return; We, however, “bowed and prayed to the neon god we/they made” not out of fear, rather out of blind obedience to ‘societal norms’, overpowering rationalizations to satisfy our greed, our lust for power over another(s), over women, over business, over other nations, etc. The unraveling of democratic norms in the USA, in Israel, the unraveling of basic ethical and moral tenets is the result of “the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made” and We the People are the only ones who can right the ship, can change course and the path to doing this is to use this 8th day of Elul and “circumcise our hearts” to serve God, to serve one another, to serve our authentic self.
The time this song was written was a difficult time for me, I knew my father was sick, his business was starting to fail, he was stressed and having another heart attack, and I knew the world was full of shit. I was having my Bar Mitzvah in 1964, so while Paul Simon was prophecizing, I was learning the Torah Portion for my Bar Mitzvah-appropriated named Lech L’Cha- go to yourself/for yourself…and be a blessing. I was speaking up and out and not being listened to except by my father who agreed with me and told me it was an uphill battle that society did not want us to win, the battle for ethical and moral behaviors, decency, being judged for the content of one’s character not the money in the bank, not the color of one’s skin, not the religion one practiced. AND, he was desperate that his son’s knew how to pray to God, to say Kaddish for his soul after he died. While I went and “bowed and prayed to the neon god they made”, the societal one of money, I knew it was wrong and have spent the last 40 years circumcising my heart over and over again because the foreskin is stubborn and wants to grow back. Today, on the 8th day of Elul this year, I am circumcised again, the ‘neon god’ of money, of needing to be seen, needing to be heard, is pretty much gone, I know I have enough and I am enough! I know that my prophetic voice will never reach the millions that Paul Simon’s has and that doesn’t make mine any less important, any more relevant than his, it just means that, following his example and the example of so many people I, Mark Borovitz refuse to bow down and pray to the neon god of societal norms and mental cliches anymore!
ACTION STEP:
Make a list of the “neon gods” you still bow down to
Make a concerted effort to “circumcise the foreskin of your heart” today
What fears keep you from being the authentic you
How are your false needs, your facades allowing you to be less than moral
God Bless, Stop Ghosting God, Ghosting Self, Rabbi Mark