we’re all right

I sometimes delight at the ambiguities of language, yet other times ambiguity leads to consequences. So I find myself going back and forth between precision and fuzziness to understand the boundaries of meaning. Here’s an example that came to mind this morning.

• Original — We are all right.
• Contraction — We’re all right.
• Meaning 1 — Safe and well. “She was ill, but she’s all right now.”
• Meaning 2 — Satisfactory, reasonably good. “He’s not rich, but he’s (doing) all right.”
• Meaning 3 — Good, pleasing. “That person volunteers at the shelter. They’re all right.”
• Meaning 4 — Correct. “We have different opinions, but we are all right.”

When I was a child, I felt sad about the wars in the world. Imagining the suffering of people due to differences of opinion whether from religion or politics was painful. It also inspired me, is there a way that we could change things so that we did not repeat the disagreements and conflicts that led to war? I took it very seriously, which was both noble and endearing, yet also stressing and disappointing.

The books The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas That Have Shaped Our World View and An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices further piqued my curiosity about the history of philosophy and religion. As a child I had assumed the correctness and goodness of the Roman Catholic faith, and as a young adult I had assumed the gentleness and kindness of Buddhist philosophies, however these books outlined the histories of both traditions, and they were littered with conflict, oppression, war, and destruction. Everyone had their own opinions, which eventually led to conflict. It seemed unavoidable.

I heard one story that makes light of the whole conundrum. One source describes the Western African trickster god Eshu, and in another source, Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell discuss the meaning behind the story.

BILL MOYERS: There’s a wonderful story in some African tradition of the god who’s walking down the road, and the god has on a hat that is colored red on one side and blue on the other side. So when the people, the farmers in the field go into the village in the evening, they said, “Did you see that fellow, that god with the blue hat?” And the others said, “No, no, he had a red hat on,” and they get into a fight.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Yes. He even makes it worse by first walking along this direction, and then turning around and turning his hat around, so that again, it’ll be red and black or whatever and then when these two chaps fight and are brought before the king or chief for judgment, this fellow appears and he says, “It’s my fault, I did it. Spreading strife is my greatest joy.”

BILL MOYERS: And there’s a truth in that…

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: There sure is, yes.

BILL MOYERS: Which is?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: No matter what system of thought you have, it can’t possibly include boundless life. And when you think everything is just that way, the trickster comes in and it all blows, and you get the becoming thing again. Now, Jung has a wonderful saying somewhere that, “Religion is a defense against a religious experience.”

BILL MOYERS: Well, you have to explain that.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well, that means it has reduced the whole thing to concepts and ideas, and having the concept and idea short-circuits the transcendent experience. The experience of deep mystery is what one has to regard as the ultimate religious experience.

There’s something that resonates with me from this dialogue. Perhaps because for years I had sought the one “reason” or “logic” or “story” that could end all wars and suffering, or at least could explain all the conflict and give some meaning to it. Otherwise, this conundrum of life suffering that we experience seemed rather uncompassionate, bleak, and sadistic.

Joseph Campbell describes boundless life, and it gives me some peace. It invokes in me these visions of vastness, possibility, interconnectedness, and infinity. I know I’m speaking abstractly here, and it will take me some time to break down and express it. For now:

We’re all right.

–goodmisfit