Let’s explore some Mercury/Saturn in Sagittarius philosophy…
* One of the classic generational complaints we hear is that these younger generations have such short attention spans. Older generations had more focus, more interest in the world, etc.
* As I watch my daughter each day I don’t see any lack of attention. I don’t see any lack of focus, or any lack of interest in the world around her.
* What if attention, focus, and interest aren’t really problems? What if they can’t be problems because our nature is to show attention, focus, and interest to the phenomenon in the material world? What then?
* Beneath the complaint there rests a deeper philosophical problem. This generation isn’t “interested in,” “focused on,” or “attendant to” the same things that I am, or was. Or, this generation isn’t focused, interested in, or attendant to the appropriate values.
* It’s part of the mythic archetype of evolution to simultaneously worship at the altars of the past and the future.
* The future is what is possible, what may improve, or become better, and the past is also frequently holding the place of what once was that we’ve fallen away from. So the future may be held in high hopes and the past may become a slippery slope. But then, also, the past can become a high ground, and the future a slippery slope.
* We play with time, constantly, as time plays us along.
* It is natural for the past and the future to move in both directions, simultaneously. It is a quality of time that is built into an unending variety of material and archetypal forms, in this cyclical multiverse.
* Because this is true, it leads to a subtle fact. Attention, focus, and interest are constant for the soul, who is timeless. Attention, focus, and interest direct our soul’s experiences in time and space. We’re never not interested.
* The deeper question, again, is thus, “what should we be focused on?” It is profoundly difficult for us to imagine that the matter of our focus or interest in the material realm is irrelevant, but it’s also difficult for us to imagine, given the scope of reality, that it is as relevant as we tend to think it is.
* It’s difficult to imagine that the quality of our attention and interest, in anything at all, is an opportunity for love, to both give and receive love, regardless of what the objects of our attention or interest might be.
* Next, we find a paradox. Once we recognize the ultimate and complete freedom of love, then the question changes from “which realities are preferable” to “how can I be of service?”
* We’re not talking about service that ought to or should, the service of guilt or self-shaming subservience, but service that is deeply in love with God. Real service gives to God out of profound, living, thankfulness…the soul, having seen some glimpse of the personality of divinity, is moved to cultivate a relationship, a relationship whose fundamental nature is reciprocal devotional service. God becomes bound to us as we bind ourselves to God.
* It is hard to love the divine. Because we have to learn how to do it. Getting frustrated by the idea of the divine as something so lovely it’s worth being devoted to isn’t any different from someone being frustrated that they can’t meditate when they sit down to meditate for the first time. If we knew how to be devoted, we wouldn’t take up the path of devotion. If we knew how to meditate, we wouldn’t be taking up the practice of meditation.
* So, yeah, basically what we’re exploring here is the idea that there’s more than meets the eye to this whole claim about one generation being more interested, attentive, or focused.
* My daughter’s interest…all I can do is try to guide it toward God. I can always do that first and foremost by the quality of attention and interest that I bring to whatever we’re doing together. 🙂
* We are all children of God. And God is interested in us. Calling us to be interested in return.
* One interesting thing about the attempt to undo net-neutrality, aside from its obvious evils, is the idea that by making the internet more prohibitive, our interest, focus, and attention might change. Change to what? Where there is constriction there is often invention, innovation, and liberation…what might that look like in a situation like this?
* My daughter is watching Winnie the Pooh right now, and though I love some Pooh Bear, we are going to head out into the woods, to practice the art of falling in love…to remember that we may use our interest and attention differently, in devotion and love.
Prayer: Teach us to be interested in you, in the divinity we see in ourselves, in others, and that daring place called “everything.”
ps–if you haven’t yet, please consider pitching into my annual daily horoscope fundraiser! It’s been a slow Sunday, so help me keep pace with our fundraising goal. We need 7 more backers today!
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