Three Secrets to Staying Sane

My oldest son told me that one thing I have been right about in life has been sleep.  When he was younger, I belabored and nagged him about getting seven to nine hours of sleep a night. 

In the Bible one of the first things God does is put Adam to sleep.  And in those stories even God rested after all of the creating. 

Sleep is imperative and next in line is staring.  Take time to stare into space.  Staring can be restorative and inspirational.  When I stare I feel like am keeping myself open for the muses to enter my brain. And they do, helping me to write, teach and think.

Finally, take time to sing out loud.  For years, I have been singing old and new songs, religious songs, the Israeli and the Russian national anthem, songs from the sixties, songs where I can’t remember the words so I make some words up, Christian hymns, Jewish liturgical songs and whatever songs come through my brain.  Singing is medicinal and sanity producing.  Try it.

So, sleeping, staring and singing.  These three will make the day better and saner.

The Mystery and Necessity of God

The mystery and the necessity of God is a puzzlement that will never go away.  There is something inside us that needs to worship or believe in something outside us to remain sane.  Even those who do not believe in a God find that they have to defend to themselves if not to others, why they do not believe.  So, why do people believe in God or Gods or Religion?  First, it is a matter of control and sanity.  We live in a world that is and seems terribly random.  Everyday things happen to us and within us that seem completely without meaning.  Some of these things can be nice and happy things; others can be difficult and painful, still others could be aggravating and exasperating.  Do any of these things that happen to us matter?  The contingency and absurdity of these events would seem less crazy if we thought and trusted that somehow there is a purposeful God at heart of the universe that is for us and not against us.  This God could be a force, an energy, a personal God, or a law of nature.  In any event meaning is vital to keeping us sane. 

Even if a person says there is no God and no force, that it is all in our minds, that we invented God and have forgotten that we did so, this person has to meet the day and stay sane.  So, suppose, when something bad happens, this person says, ‘That’s life!  Even that saying is an explanation that he or she believes in, that life is like that.  That is the meaning, that is the God. A person trusts that life is like that and this explanation provides all the meaning that is needed to meet the day. 

By the way, any God worth his, her or its salt is not worried about whether you or I believe their existance.  If the Biblical stories are true, God is more interested in our caring for the neighbor in pain and living a humane life.  The rest is just commentary.

A Word about Messiahs

People seem to love messiahs.  The thought of a Superman showing up to do away with evil and keep us all from any danger or harm is seductive and enticing.  The belief in apocalyptic expectations began over 2000 years ago and to this day still holds many people in its messianic claws.  I know some people become tired, fearful and angry.  They become convinced that the evil we are experiencing is so great that God must soon be convinced to act and end it all.  Maybe this hope keeps many such people sane.  But, think about it, in so many ways it is too late for messiahs.  Too many children have been murdered beyond what any Jewish, Christian or Muslim messiah could redeem.  Too much craziness and innocent suffering has occurred to be part of any messianic salvation.  But, people love the idea of a messiah and that hope will never die. So it goes . . .The real messiah is here when any one of us bends down to help a neighbor, when any one of us stands with some one who is hurting, whenever we resist the terrible temptation to be indifferent.

Interpretation and Its Pitfalls

There are many different ways to be a Muslim.  Muslims are people called upon to submit to the will of Allah.  And the will of Allah is written in the Qu’ran.  But once it is written it requires interpretation.  And therein lies the rub.  Once you have a written text you cannot control who reads the text, who interprets the text, the way they interpret the text, and the way they act after they interpret the text.  This is the great blessing and the terrible curse inherent in having your revelation come through a scripture.  This is true for Muslims, Christians Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and any other religion that possesses a scripture

Interpretation is loaded with all sorts of cultural preconceptions, self serving commitments, and the desire for power.  When a person believes or thinks that he or she really understands a text, it means they have control of that text.  Interpretation is all wrapped up in the possibility of self deception.  This does not mean we ought not engage in interpretation.  It is inevitable and necessary.  The very text beckons us.  But interpretation is best done within a community of readers who can call each other out and tell each other that we/you might be wrong.  Interpretation requires humility for it to be effective. Interpretation of any text is by nature tentative and only a glimpse of its meaning.  So, be careful, think that you may be wrong.

Regrets are a Good Thing

I have a number of regrets in my life.  When I was too young to know better I made some not very good decisions.  For too long I beat myself up about these regrets.  It took me a long time to realize regrets are not a bad thing.  They are a sign you did the best you could do until you knew better.  As Bruce Kramer, the man with ALS in Minnesota taught us, regrets are our teacher.  A life well lived is a life full of regrets. Regrets teach us what to do and what not to do again.  Regrets are our Torah, our teacher. Take time to learn from your regrets.

The Secret Resides in the Doing

The goal of life is not to be religious.  Monotheistic religions were invented by human beings as a vehicle or vector to point us toward God and the neighbor.  The goal was not and is not to be religious.  The Torah, Jesus, and the Quran are not interested in your believing in them.  They want you to be transformed into a human being.  The goal of all these religions is to turn us all into human beings of character.  If your religion teaches you to love God and care for the neighbor, then, it is a good religion.  If it teaches you to hate and be indifferent to the neighbor, then, it is a bad religion.  An old Jewish saying:  “Do not listen to the mouth, follow the feet.”  If I want to know whether you are a religious caring person, I will not listen to what you believe, I will follow you around all day.  Then I will discover who you are by what you do.  The secret of life resides in the doing and the choices we make each and every day.

The Most Important Difference Between Jews and Christians

The most important difference between Jews and Christians is that a Jew can never stop being a Jew while a Christian can decide to no longer be Christian.  Jews are Jews because they are  born of a Jewish mother or convert into the religion. Christians are Christian because they hold a particular faith.  While a Jew cannot be unborn, a Christian can stop believing.  Because of this, Jews have much more freedom in their religion to argue, accuse or question God, not believe, or even decide there is no God.  There are all sorts of Jews including atheist, agnostic, secular, humanist and religious Jews including Hasidic, Ultra-Orthodox, Modern Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and a number of variations within and outside each of these groups.  They are all Jewish because they are members of the tribe by birth or conversion. Any Christian who declares that he or she does not believe that Jesus is the Christ would no longer be seen by the majority of Christians as being Christian. Finally, and maybe most important, for Jews, God is not Jewish and people do not need to become Jewish to be “saved”, while some Christians believe that being Christian is the only way to be saved and that God is evangelically Christian.  The fact is, and we have to face up to it, God is not Jewish. God is not Christian and God is not Muslim.  God is God.  God is not a member of any religion.  God is not bound by any religion.  God is God.