"Sometime after Apollo 11, I happened to catch Neil Armstrong on TV doing a Chrysler commercial in civvies. Well!! Homo sapiens, peak of evolution, American icon, star of the cosmic drama, in the toils of Madison Avenue!" (herman wouk)
sell out...
it's how we establish and maintain our progress
it's what we do best...
that and kill one another.
interesting, that the teachings of emmanuel levinas speak fairly specifically of murder... in particular, that to rob another of autonomy is to effectively kill that other.
so it seems that in both of the things we do best, someone has to die.
killing another begins foundationally with robbing the other of the autonomy that is rightfully theirs, and selling out is to rob oneself of the same autonomy. even Jesus speaks of this in the scriptures when he implores me to deny myself, take up my cross daily and follow him. to surrender to lordship of another is to willfully give up my autonomy and die to self.
where this all breaks for me personally is that i don't feel like i've sold out on anything. i've accepted my role in the murder of Jesus (one life one time for all for all time ) and have sought to follow him... even when that following demands more of me than i can fathom, much less articulate.
2 comments:
All this talk of death has made me hungry!
I have wondered about this teaching in the balance of self and God - living a religious life. How much do I hold on to? How much do I let go? What has been given back? What was never given in the first place?
I think the idea of sacrifice is what is meant in the passage Jesus speaks about 'following him - to the death even'. If God is that real to us - there is no point at which we will stop in following him...sometimes this may include death.
But like I always say 'you live for something in the same way you would die for it'.
'you live for something in the same way you would die for it' (SVS)
"my lifestyle determines my deathstyle...
keep on searchin'. this search goes on"
(metallica)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QpCkuTAghA
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