Saturday, 4 April 2020

Don't Let Misfortune Catch You Unawares!


Lent 2020 - Day 39

Our lives are forever teetering on the edge of chaos. The longer one doesn't fall, the longer one can heuristically deduce that one will never fall. Complacency sets in.

People in less happy times than the ones we've just left, people who had death, disease, war and famine all around them were constantly wary. Superstitions set in.

"One for sorrow, two for joy" - subconsciously, I've seen solitary magpies as birds of ill omen; bad luck catches out those who are unaware, complacent. Superstition is regarded primarily in terms of  omens that herald misfortune. This is wrong. For me, omens are a signal to take special care, to look out. Be on your guard.

One for Sorrow... but a second magpie lurks in the cherry tree

Coincidences are meant to be meaningless. To rationalists, they most certainly are. The physicist Richard Feynman once said “You know, the most amazing thing happened to me tonight... I saw a car with the license plate ARW 357. Can you imagine? Of all the millions of license plates in the state, what was the chance that I would see that particular one tonight? Amazing!” In trying to poo-poo the idea that coincidences can have a metaphysical nature, he fails to connect.

'ARW 357' would have truly been amazing had it cropped up in another context around the same time, say, a phone number, and had the observer been conscious of both. The question is - what to make of such a coincidence?

Coincidences happen more often to those with greater powers of observations, those who are conscious and aware - and curious. Knowing how to respond to them is all important. Wealth and status will not help you along your eternal journey; that coincidental series of digits you see recurring won't be a lottery ticket number. But extending your life into a ripe - as in productive - old age is desirable in the Great Scheme of Things.

Boasting and pride brings it on. Beware hubris. Beware that moment when you think that you are the Master of the Universe, and that nothing can touch you. As that great English 20th century mystical philosopher, the Reverend W. Awdry, would tell his young readers, pride comes before the fall. "Look at me," whooshed James. "I'm a splendid red engine." And children would know, as they turned the page, that on the next one, James would run into a tar wagon, his splendid red paint coated with sticky black tar. Be not boastful. It is a human trait we must rise above.

Licho nie śpi, the old Polish saying warns us that Licho, the Slavic pagan demon of ill-fortune, doesn't sleep, and is ever present; it's ready to burn your barn, blight your crops, sicken your livestock, and bring illness and hunger to your people. Be on guard - spiritual as well as physical - especially at times like this.

And stay grateful. When your guard slips, you take the good life for granted. By actively promoting those thoughts of gratitude to play around your consciousness, you lower the chances of Licho catching you unawares.

This time four years ago
HOT! (24C)

This time five years ago:
Snowy Easter Sunday

This time eight years ago:
Look upon my lack of works and despair

This time nine years ago:
More old-school retailing
(the old Sezam)

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