Page 22 - Introducing The Gratitudes

22 the exploratory, take no prisoners, burn the barn down, urges of
INTRODUCING
THE GRATITUDES
Field Guides to Learning and Living Everyday Values
the futurist or the entrepreneur. It is instead a search for endur- ing if not perennial values in history, and it covers a lot of terri- tory trying to distinguish those values that have durable purpose for our lives as we live them today, and those that we can carry with us forward into the future.
It’s true that most forms of organized religions stand firmly on the conformity side of the values line and that divine revelations have an annoying habit of popping up in semi-literate corners of the world at a point in human history long before accurate, mod- ern means of recording equipment was invented. What resulted was an endless chain of told and retold stories over decades until somebody finally wrote them down, a process that leaves much room for interpretation and manipulation. The freshness, beauty, and vital energy of the original story dies a miserable death espe- cially when it is turned into dogma, which it too often is. And what
“What is the meaning
of life? That was all – a
simple question; on
that tended to close in
on one with years.
The great revelation
had never come.
Instead there were
little daily miracles,
illuminations, matches
struck unexpectedly in
the dark; here was one.
– Virginia Wolff
Virginia Woolf, from the Authors Series print by Ryan Sheffield, available on Etsy.
followers are left with is the dried-up, mummified corpse of what was once a wonderful, transforma- tional idea.
If rejecting dogma and nourishing the courage and the creativity that is required to make in- formed choices about how to live a righteous life is a good idea in all times and places, it is a talent that is becoming even more essential in today’s world. Being exposed to virtually unlimited stimuli and ideas coming relentlessly at us from every corner of the world means we have more material to play with, more ideas to juggle, more tensions to defuse, more enemies to disarm, more evils to avoid, and more values to absorb. It never ends, and it appears that it never will now that the genie of data has been let loose in the world. It is only natural then that greater numbers of people are mixing the ingredi- ents, making new connections, and revolutioniz- ing traditions. As Daniele Bolelli writes in his 2013 book Create You Own Religion: A How-To Book Without Instructions:
“With every facet of human culture being touched by this rapid exchange of information, it only makes sense that religion would be affected as well. In the days before our globalized, interconnected world, people practiced whatever religion hap- pened to be the dominant one in the country of their birth. The belief that by random luck one is born into the one true religious tradition, while the rest of the world needs to be shown the light, is begin-
ning to become progressively more evident. In the face of in- creased knowledge and choices, traditional forms of authority and evangelism are collapsing. Rigid identities – be they national, ideological, or religious – are becoming more obsolete. Prepack-