RAIN. We take it for granted until there's too little or too much. And seldom is it just right. In my neighborhood, rain serves as a topic of conversation, a shared experience of life when there mightn't be any other topic to share safely or easily.
Simple enough and perhaps even serving as an escape from having to talk about other more troublesome things, "rain" serves as an extension of friendship, but also an unspoken sharing of our common vulnerability. We speak this vulnerability in veiled and cautious ways: "Sure could use a good rain," "how's your garden doing this year?" or "Don't know what we're gonna do if we don't get more rain"!
And, then, the other side of not having enough rain also hangs over our heads like a prospective catastrophe. We may get too much rain, our rivers may overflow, tropical storms and hurricane sweep down upon us and wash away our houses, our livelihoods, our life-long savings, and a destruction of our security in the natural world. A science has developed that enables us to track these wicked weather systems. Hurricanes may be spotted thousands of miles away on our weather channels. We follow the little dots on our screens as they wobble their way toward us, ushering wind and rain that we hope may skim or even avoid our coast lines. We realize we may even hear the dreaded announcement of mandatory evacuations.
These tropical storms and hurricanes bring not only rain, of course, but also devastating winds that can level populated areas. And before the wind strikes, and even after it departs, we soak under a barrage of dark skies and rain, rain, rain. Then, suddenly, the rain stops, the sun reappears, and we lose sight of the rain for a little while until once more we have too much or too little.
One might say that this is the "natural order of things." This line of thought leads us into the realm of natural science. And like the title implies, we may travel down that pathway to discover two main branches: "life science" or "biology" as we may more likely understand the meaning of life science; and then there is physical science with its branches of "astronomy," "chemistry," "earth sciences," and "physics."
Each of these disciplines elevates our understanding of how the natural order of our physical world works. But what about psychology, or theology, or spirituality? We might refer to these—at least for this writing's understanding—as "a science of meaning." I am not referencing here to semantics, which is understood as the name for a philosophical and scientific study of meaning in natural and artificial languages.
However, there is another "natural order." This is the natural ordering of human existence around five "needs." These are:
THE NEED TO BELONG
THE NEED TO MATTER
THE NEED TO FEEL SAFE
THE NEED TO LOVE AND BE LOVED
THE NEED TO HOPE
These needs form the natural order of human existence in order for us to live and thrive.
But what about rain, you may ask. And my answer is to understand rain not only as a natural element in our physical world as it would be studied and presented in the physical sciences, but in addition to suggest that rain my be understood symbolically. When Bob Dylan sings "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," he means not just the physical rain that falls on our earth or replenishes our rivers. Dylan describes psychological/spiritual/social experiences as he addresses "my blue-eyed son."
Moving toward the meaning-full idea of rain, we not only hold the symbolic "idea" of rain, but we experience the "feeling" of rain, and even further, we sense the social action of rain. And that is what? That is to confront the order of things when that order has become unnatural.
This "unnatural" order of life is what we are experiencing now in our social/political world when
A "spiritual awakening." What might that be? In whatever form it may appear, the writer clearly has in mind a restoring of the "natural order of human existence" in which neighbors greet one another with respect, kindness, and hope for our mutual future. As I read the article and listened closely, I heard the soft pattering of what sounded like rain. It was only natural.
Simple enough and perhaps even serving as an escape from having to talk about other more troublesome things, "rain" serves as an extension of friendship, but also an unspoken sharing of our common vulnerability. We speak this vulnerability in veiled and cautious ways: "Sure could use a good rain," "how's your garden doing this year?" or "Don't know what we're gonna do if we don't get more rain"!
And, then, the other side of not having enough rain also hangs over our heads like a prospective catastrophe. We may get too much rain, our rivers may overflow, tropical storms and hurricane sweep down upon us and wash away our houses, our livelihoods, our life-long savings, and a destruction of our security in the natural world. A science has developed that enables us to track these wicked weather systems. Hurricanes may be spotted thousands of miles away on our weather channels. We follow the little dots on our screens as they wobble their way toward us, ushering wind and rain that we hope may skim or even avoid our coast lines. We realize we may even hear the dreaded announcement of mandatory evacuations.
These tropical storms and hurricanes bring not only rain, of course, but also devastating winds that can level populated areas. And before the wind strikes, and even after it departs, we soak under a barrage of dark skies and rain, rain, rain. Then, suddenly, the rain stops, the sun reappears, and we lose sight of the rain for a little while until once more we have too much or too little.
One might say that this is the "natural order of things." This line of thought leads us into the realm of natural science. And like the title implies, we may travel down that pathway to discover two main branches: "life science" or "biology" as we may more likely understand the meaning of life science; and then there is physical science with its branches of "astronomy," "chemistry," "earth sciences," and "physics."
Each of these disciplines elevates our understanding of how the natural order of our physical world works. But what about psychology, or theology, or spirituality? We might refer to these—at least for this writing's understanding—as "a science of meaning." I am not referencing here to semantics, which is understood as the name for a philosophical and scientific study of meaning in natural and artificial languages.
However, there is another "natural order." This is the natural ordering of human existence around five "needs." These are:
THE NEED TO BELONG
THE NEED TO MATTER
THE NEED TO FEEL SAFE
THE NEED TO LOVE AND BE LOVED
THE NEED TO HOPE
These needs form the natural order of human existence in order for us to live and thrive.
But what about rain, you may ask. And my answer is to understand rain not only as a natural element in our physical world as it would be studied and presented in the physical sciences, but in addition to suggest that rain my be understood symbolically. When Bob Dylan sings "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," he means not just the physical rain that falls on our earth or replenishes our rivers. Dylan describes psychological/spiritual/social experiences as he addresses "my blue-eyed son."
Moving toward the meaning-full idea of rain, we not only hold the symbolic "idea" of rain, but we experience the "feeling" of rain, and even further, we sense the social action of rain. And that is what? That is to confront the order of things when that order has become unnatural.
This "unnatural" order of life is what we are experiencing now in our social/political world when
- destruction of our democratic ideals is not challenged
- dictatorships are admired
- authoritarianism replaces due process for all people
- the use of our military forces are prepared to gather "undesirable" persons for incarceration, execution, or banishment from our country
- members of another political party are considered as demonic
- any or all of the above may be accepted if they are good for business and profit-making
A "spiritual awakening." What might that be? In whatever form it may appear, the writer clearly has in mind a restoring of the "natural order of human existence" in which neighbors greet one another with respect, kindness, and hope for our mutual future. As I read the article and listened closely, I heard the soft pattering of what sounded like rain. It was only natural.
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