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Thursday, October 07, 2010

Job

The story of Job is the story of the paradox of life: Love & Death, pain and pleasure. There is a lot of extra stuff thrown in, like the bet between God and the angel, but it is an illustration of life's paradoxical... or you might say ironical nature:  in pleasure, there is pain, and vice-versa.

We always seem to focus on one side of the equation, or on the other. What we fail to do is to see them both together, as in Job. Job is not about faith. The old stories of faith are as quaint as metal toy trucks from the 19th century. God is expected, not believed in. "Faith" means "steadfast", not "believe in".

We understand nothing if we do not understand why life teeters between the horns of an ironic dilemma: why pride goes before a fall, why arrogance is a desert, why exploitation of greater wealth leads to poverty.
The story of Job is a guarantee that what goes around, comes around. It says the mighty will be cast down, and if there is no understanding of this cycle, they will remain so. Job shows that the meek and humbled shall once again inherit the earth.

This cycle is at the very center of our lives, and we do not even look at it, having preferred our fairy tales of "progress" and "empire" and wealth as a state-of-being that lasts forever.
Posted by Montag at 6:16 AM

3 comments:

Ruth said...

I like this take. I've been thinking about this in Rumi terms, that when one thing comes forward, its opposite may not be far behind.

Ironically, I guess, when people are brought low (cancer, for example, which my friend experienced), the hubbub of life drifts away, and life can become ecstatic, in its simple clarity and truth.

But pain. That's another thing altogether. Real, physical pain. I don't know how people maintain balance then.

Thursday, October 07, 2010 3:24:00 PM
Montag said...

That is the of things as perceived by intelligence: there is always the shadow of the opposite... Pride never goes to the opera in his full regalia without being in peril of slipping on a banana peel.

Your mention of physical pain brings up an important distinction - real physical pain versus structured pain like depression.
The immediacy of severe physical pain
overwhelms us. Actually so does "severe" physical pleasure. This is why we control substances: to keep people from getting too fond of pleasures therein.
We keep society going like a ping-pong match between opposites: our momentary feelings of wealth are haunted by the shadow of poverty, our feelings of beauty are haunted by feelings of unattractiveness, and so on.

You know, I never thought of the "practical" side of this philosophy of opposites before. It seems as if it is the basis of a lot of our advertising: if you are happy, beware of the coming unhappiness.... which can be prevented, of course, if you buy our product.

(If I seem rambling it's only because I'm actually thinking about this stuff, and I find it interesting... and I think there's a lot here in this distinction between simple, stark pain and the chronic pain.)

Friday, October 08, 2010 6:57:00 AM
Ruth said...

Rambling is good. And I appreciate what you wrote in your new post about comments. Very much.

But I still think you're smarter than me. So you'd better not run for Congress.

Friday, October 08, 2010 7:30:00 AM

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