Food for Thought

Lady Lazarus
by Sylvia Plath
I have done it again. One year in every ten I manage it-- A sort of walking miracle, my skin Bright as a Nazi lampshade, My right foot A paperweight, My face a featureless, fine Jew linen. Peel off the napkin O my enemy. Do I terrify?-- The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth? The sour breath Will vanish in a day. Soon, soon the flesh The grave cave ate will be At home on me And I a smiling woman. I am only thirty. And like the cat I have nine times to die. This is Number Three. What a trash To annihilate each decade. What a million filaments. The peanut-crunching crowd Shoves in to see Them unwrap me hand and foot-- The big strip tease. Gentlemen, ladies These are my hands My knees. I may be skin and bone, Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman. The first time it happened I was ten. It was an accident. The second time I meant To last it out and not come back at all. I rocked shut As a seashell. They had to call and call And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls. Dying Is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I've a call. It's easy enough to do it in a cell. It's easy enough to do it and stay put. It's the theatrical Comeback in broad day To the same place, the same face, the same brute Amused shout: 'A miracle!' That knocks me out. There is a charge For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge For the hearing of my heart-- It really goes. And there is a charge, a very large charge For a word or a touch Or a bit of blood Or a piece of my hair or my clothes. So, so, Herr Doktor. So, Herr Enemy. I am your opus, I am your valuable, The pure gold baby That melts to a shriek. I turn and burn. Do not think I underestimate your great concern. Ash, ash-- You poke and stir. Flesh, bone, there is nothing there-- A cake of soap, A wedding ring, A gold filling. Herr God, Herr Lucifer Beware Beware. Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air.

East vs. West: do religions mirror societal ideology?

In a recent conversation with "my Mormon friend" (everyone should have at least one), she asked how I could accept a religious or spiritual system that did not have a strict and static sense of right and wrong.  She was speaking of karma (and although she didn't know it, dharma too).  How can something be right for one person but wrong for another?  To her, this just didn't equate.  It seemed too subjective.  How could a society function with such loose rules?

The answer is, of course, that it's not quite that lacking in black and white.  While both Hinduism and Buddhism embrace the idea of individual karma/dharma, it's not the moral free-for-all that I think my friend imagines.  There are still some things that are just wrong, no matter what.  Let's use the good old Ten Commandments as an example (as they are, in fact, universal rules found in all societies -- at least the important ones).  Adultery -- I'm hard-pressed to think of an example where this would be acceptable or "good" karma.  Maybe if your childhood sweetheart was in a loveless, abusive marriage, and you gave in after 20 years and finally did it -- would that be so wrong?  Hell, even most Christians (the non-rabid kind) would think that was ok - or at least forgivable.  How about euthanizing someone with a painful, terminal illness, when he/she wanted you to do it?  That's killing, but again, rational people of all walks would agree that this is not a sin.  And so on.

The meat of the matter is not so much the clarity of rules, though.  I think the real issue for my friend is a general lack of authoritarian structure.  It seems so vague.  And I get that.  I understand how weird this seems to someone who has grown up in a very structured life and who is ok with it.  But some of us aren't into that scene;  the idea of an authoritarian god lording over me like an angry daddy.....well that's just about the last god I want to worship.  (I prefer the kind with six arms wielding swords).  Some of us are ok with the idea that we each walk a different path in this life, that we are subject to the karma of the previous life, that we may be flawed and make mistakes but that we can evolve beyond that karma for the next cycle.

To view humanity this way is to view it with compassion.  Instead of cracking down on someone for being different or "sinning," why not view him with some empathy and understanding?  "Poor kid, no wonder he turned out that way, from his childhood" etc.  Why shower sinners with bile and venom instead? Is that what Jesus would do?  Would he cast someone away for the path his life has taken?  I'm pretty sure the Bible is filled with examples to the contrary.

So this comes down to not a difference in values, but authority preference.  Here in the Puritan West, we like our religion heavy on the fire and brimstone.  We like our God to treat us like naughty children, to act the strict and punitive parent.  But in the East, while there is still plenty of punishment for evildoing, it's more laidback.  "Hey man, you can do that if you want, but you're gonna get it if you do," rather than "don't you do that OR ELSE!"  It carries a tacit implication of individual freedom of choice.  How ironic that in a country that espouses the idea of freedom that we should have a state religion (yes, let's just call a spade a spade) that does just the opposite.

I don't need God or George Bush or Larry Craig or Pat Robertson to tell me what's right and what's wrong.  I can figure that out for myself.  That's between me and god (or Shiva or Krishna or Ganesh....).  And if I can't, well, then, I'll just suffer some bad karmic fruit until I figure it out.  And more important, I will respect other people's rights to do the same.

The U.S. would be well-served to adopt a more Eastern philosophy.  Gay marriage, abortion, euthanasia, and so many other issues would just disappear from the political soapbox.  Just imagine how great we could be if we were focused on REAL issues.

Afterthought next morning: Children require a more structured (authoritarian) parenting style.  As one matures, one (hopefully) evolves beyond this to an ideology that allows for more individual thought.  Perhaps this is a metaphor for societies.  The US is quite young and so is still in the mindset of being told what's right/wrong and blind obedience to a leader.  India, on the other hand, is quite old and has matured to a philosophy that allows more subtlety of thought.