Brian’s Reflection: Saturday, December 8, 2007


The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort?
Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean,
is there something wrong with society that's making us so pressurized,
that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?

- John Lennon of the Beatles, murdered on this day, 1980


The answer, John, is Yes. There is something “wrong with society”. And it has ever been so, universally. Despite the fact that Guinea-Bissau is now overwhelmed with drug dealers from South America controlling and destroying their society and importing cocaine by the multi-tons to distribute to the World, alcohol is still I think the major all-purpose drug that pervades most societies of the globe. The rudiments of beer have been discovered in ancient Egyptian tombs, sake in ancient Japanese culture, fermented liquor in ancient African cultures, etc. America, America - drug czars notwithstanding, Americans float on a sea of drugs to cushion us against our society.

Is it just urban society? I don’t know. But I have lived in many a small town - and drugs of various sorts were prevalent, even northern Manitoba in the late 60’s, where boozing men were a scourge every night on the roads and in the domestic violence of practically every household.

I don’t think the problem is living in society, urban or otherwise. I think the problem is denial. Denial of what will make us happy as human beings. We human beings always have thought that power and “stuff” will make us happy. Millennia have wrestled with the same issue. Religions and philosophies come and go, trying to make us see that this is folly. Jesus “had no place to lay His head”. The Buddha lives homeless under a tree. St. Francis strips naked and finds happiness in poverty. A few “get it”. Most don’t. Most adopt a “religion” on the surface, but ignore the teachings and insights. The so-called “Gospel of Prosperity” is a perfect example: worship God and you will be rich - and therefore happy.

Bullshit.

Love is scary. Demanding. Asking of human beings the deepest personal understanding of what makes us happy and calling us to “do unto others” that which we know we ourselves require to be happy.

Maybe most of “us” will never “get it”. Maybe human society will always need those “accessories to normal living to live”.

As Joshua said, “As for I am my house”, I choose the God of Love.

Brian+