When the present is judged as lacking or deficient and the ideal is judged as superior, it creates enmity between the present and the future
Paul Hessert says that meaning is structured around the idea of movement toward an ideal, and the ability to pursue that movement.
The pursuit of meaning sets the present against the future. We tend to believe that something has meaning when it leads toward a desired goal that we consider to be better than the current condition.
In this way, the making of meaning rejects at least some aspect of the current reality and pursues a better, more desirable one. We can see this in what we so often think of as meaningful pursuits – like the pursuit of justice or peace.
But paradoxically, when the present is judged as lacking or deficient and the ideal is judged as superior, it creates enmity between the present and the future and places the future in a superior position to the present.
Should and should not.
Good and bad
Us and them
Ways of being and thinking are judged and in and outgroups are formed.
Enemies are made.
Energy is spent trying to do away with those things we judge are bad.
Even inside ourselves. Self help can be a way to pursue meaning. Self-actualization. And parts of the self can be judged as a type of enemy as we spend time and effort doing violence against it to be rid of it.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t try to make the world a better place, but what I am exploring is the idea that if we try to improve the world, a situation, our even ourselves because we need to make meaning with and of our lives, we are approaching it from a posture of judgement, power over, and violence against.
Can we believe that a radical acceptance of the other – be it a circumstance, a person, a situation or an aspect of ourselves – rather than striving toward change is what will actually create a better world?
It’s a paradox, loving the enemy rids us of an enemy, giving up trying to change things changes them, letting go of power over fills us with an entirely different kind of energy called love.