On Sun, 3 Dec 1995 CrbnBlu@aol.com wrote:
> I guess it's time to stop lurking about and become a participant...
Attaboy!
[ snip ]
> So again I as, how do you will the blind to see. Which may sound like an
> absurd question in this context because I'm directing this question to an
> audience that already sees. It's a lot like the fact that those that run
> all the time don't need to run because they run, and those that attend all
> the cutting edge conferences are the ones that don't need to attend
> because they already know all the stuff from attending.
This is a profound and even a disturbing paradox. I once thought it was
solvable; now I'm resigned to simply contemplating it from time to time.
I remember vividly observing, as a boy in church, that people who
responded most intensely to sermons urging humility were always those who
already had more than enough of that virtue; and those who were most moved
by sermons on Christian freedom were already unconventional.
> All great progress comes from converting non-believers... And we're all
> here talking to each other because it's far more comfortable than trying
> to talk to others that don't want to listen because they already know the
> truth, their truth, and they defend against those that would attempt to
> tear down the facade.
Fortunately, of course, this is not the _whole_ truth of the matter.
"Non-believers" sometimes convert themselves. The village atheist
unexpectedly walks into church, long after everybody gave up. The power
of the most profound truths is not primarily a _verbal_ power: it does not
submit to the syntax and harness and bridle and semantics of our
sentences. It works independently of all that: and one day the blind see,
or we see them, at any rate the world is different. Amazing Grace...
[ snip ]
> enough of my ramblings for now,
> guess I'll go back to lurking,
Nah, don't do that. I like your ramblings better. Besides, people can't
respond to your lurking.
...well, lemme think about that a while...
...maybe the lurkers are the wiser ones after all. Consider the ineffable
enlightenment, the uninterrupted tranquillity, that must be theirs.
Lurkers are the Bodhisattvas of the list.
[Host's Note: Hmmm... Now where did I mis-place my vocab?
bo-dhi-satt-va n. Buddhism. An enlightened being who, out of
compassion, forgoes nirvana in order to save others.
-- American Heritage Dictionary, 3rd Edition ]
--
Regards
Jim Michmerhuizen jamzen@world.std.com
web residence at http://world.std.com/~jamzen/
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Jim Michmerhuizen <jamzen@world.std.com>