By
The uprooting and moving of my office and filing system, then our little vacation in
"Promote ye the development of the cities of God and His countries, and glorify Him therein in the joyous accents of His well-favoured ones." (Aqdas, p. 77)
First I note that the little known academic discipline of development studies will, according to this, not remain obscure. It certainly is important to me, as my unfinished work, Earth Order, testifies. As the Revelation of Baha'u'llah gains prominence, progress and development (not necessarily growth) will surely become a central focus for all careers and avocations.
In the second phrase in this sentence, Baha'u'llah talks of development as an expression of worship, as the "joyous accents" of saintly people. Think the loving attitude promulgated in the public talks of the Master. In other words, I think this implies that development will become a central religious and artistic expression, not only a scientific or political concern. Then Baha'u'llah brings in what made my heart leap, a clear expression of the mission of the Baha'i, and of the writer in particular.
"In truth, the hearts of men are edified through the power of the tongue, even as houses and cities are built up by the hand and other means."
In this Baha'u'llah is telling us that material improvement is only half the battle; we need to reform our tongues every bit as much as we need to improve our physical circumstances. As Jesus said, what profiteth it a man to gain the world and lose his soul? And we get our soul back by speaking good words, by praising our Lord, by speaking and writing positive, edifying speech. In this age, a writer or speaker must become a heart builder.
Yes, things are looking bad for the future. The more prosperous we get (for a mere twenty bucks I walk to Dunnville's Giant Tiger or Food Basics stores and get so much food I can barely carry it home. Such prosperity, in the broad view of history, is rare indeed) the more worrisomely "apres moi le deluge" our times seem. You look at the world as a whole, not just our privileged places, and the processes of disintegration are clearly accelerating.
Let me mention only how the world's crisis-slash-opportunity affects our family: 8 year old Tomaso wants to dress up for Halloween this year as "toxic waste," or at least he did until I mentioned that nuclear waste is even worse than toxic waste. Now he wants to mix them, toxic nuclear waste; and 13 year old Silvie is planning the scariest costume she could think of, which she calls "global warming." When I questioned her choice, she said that I should dress up as the greenhouse effect. "And why is that?" I asked. "Because the greenhouse effect is the father of global warming."
Finally, Baha'u'llah in the last sentence of this paragraph comes to the nub of it all: action, faith, initiative, execution. I have never been very good at nubs, but there it is staring me in the face. I cannot turn aside.
"We have assigned to every end a means for its accomplishment; avail yourselves thereof, and place your trust and confidence in God, the Omniscient, the All-Wise."
This was the question that preoccupied me during our vacation, what is the means to my end? I have twenty five years of writing under my belt, much of it written under duress and chronic migraine. Surely God had a purpose, it was some kind of preparation for something. It is early to articulate what I came up with, let that be expressed in action. But there will still be a place for the Badi Blog, though different in focus.
Let me conclude with the promised interview with Dr. Ronald K. Glossop. I had a digital recorder ready to record the interview, but as so often happens with this top-of-the-line Panasonic atrocity given to me by my father (who could not figure it out), it had burned up its batteries and failed at the last minute. In future I will stick to the older technology of the mini-cassette tape recorder. The notes I took were scribbled and inadequate, but that, and a feeble memory, is all I have. Sorry.
No comments:
Post a Comment