I’ll freely admit that one of my greatest fears is being irrelevant. And I worry about getting caught up in the mundane, materialistic world and living a life of pleasant distractions (as opposed to the unpleasant distractions I’ve been dealing with) while accomplishing little or nothing of ultimate importance.
But the last blog entry and the PeaceBang essay that inspired it have got me thinking that I’m chasing the wrong thing.
What if we really can’t change the world? What if even our best magic isn’t strong enough to fix the big problems of humanity? What if I really can’t be a fixer?
Beyond the undeniable logic of both Thomas Moore and Rev. Weinstein, there’s the current situation with the Religious Right, who are coming to the conclusion that all their efforts to use politics and government to turn America into a theocracy just aren’t going to happen (see the entry below on the Newsweek article on The End of Christian America). If the Religious Right – with all their financial and political resources – couldn’t fix the world (in the way they thought it needed to be fixed), why should we think we could do any more?
Pagans are sometimes accused of trying to live a fantasy. Perhaps I am… only not in the way that’s usually meant. Perhaps the fantasy is that we can fix things. I want to fix things. But if that’s simply not possible, then I’m wasting my time (and causing myself endless frustration) trying.
So what’s left? If we can’t fix the world, all we can do is to model the values we hold most dear – to become a holy person.
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