Last night I had one of those special dreams, one that reaches beyond the usual run of events and anxieties to a deeper level. Still, at first it was a mishmash, although it reached back in time. I was on an overgrown altar in a jungle, Mayan style, and was with the woman with whom I did fieldwork in the Venezuelan lowlands. We were at the end of our research, and as we climbed the old structure of alien stone, I said, "we are at the end of it. Thank goodness we had this as a focal point, or we would have been lost in the jungle."
Then I was canoeing down rapids, then on a rocky pinnacle covered with ice, skis on my feet. Those with me were below yelling, "just slide down. It will be all right." I did, and it was, and at the bottom, again I realized that I was at the end of the journey, the people I was with those from my year abroad in Mexico when an undergraduate, those with whom I had gone on pilgrimage to Rome with, among others. I was standing then across the street from them, alone, while they waved goodbye to me from the canoe, about to continue down another river without me. I wanted to be with them, but it was my time to leave, and I waved back, with one hand first, then with two. But it was not enough. I wished to convey in my wave all the trip had meant, at first the fellowship of it, and then the deep meaning of it; how our trip was one of not only companionship, but the sharing of hardships and with that, the learning of the meaning of love. I wished to make a signal with my hands that meant all that, but couldn't quite. I wished to show them what it meant, what our journey really was, even though they knew.
When I awoke, it became clear - life is a journey to learn about love. It is not a new idea, but in the context struck deeper than mere words. It was fact in deed. And that is what allegory is: not the day to day stuff of our reality, but what is meant in the overall passing of reality. It is the meaning of life that is beyond the incidentals of life, although not exclusive of them. Allegory does not direct us to, for instance, focus on our argument with our wife over who let the toilet run overnight, but rather what the greater meaning of the marriage is and has been.
Jorge Luis Borges wrote that allegories are no longer written, lost to the modern novel form after the Age of Reason. I forget why he said that was, but to me it is obvious: we no longer see the bigger picture for what it is, but rather insist on reality, or on fantasy that satisfies a desire. Although I did not know it at the time of writing, my book, "Dream Weaver," is an allegory, a subliminal memory of what that section of the past meant in a sense beyond the immediate circumstances. And so was the movie we saw last night, "God's Not Dead."
In the first 15 minutes I had a sinking feeling about the movie - it was a set-up of harshly materialistic people against a few brave Christian believers. The star was a college freshman who was challenged by his vehemently atheistic professor of philosophy to prove that God was not dead. Through it he loses his girlfriend, but he sticks to his guns. You know who is going to win. Others, too, are abandoned because of their faith or are attracted to it by their circumstances. But as I started to grimace, I realized that it was an allegory - not as real life proceeds, but as real life means to one who sees it through the eyes of faith. This movie might be offensive to those who are not Christian, and this is certainly a shortcoming, but it should be taken as allegory, and in this it is true, as my dream told: life is not about the immediate impressions of things, of strict reality, but of the meaning in which it is embedded. To understand this, we must have an openness to see, just as the music or art lover must be open not only to sound or the colors of the paint, but what they mean as overall works. This applies to all knowledge of this world, whether it be scientific or sociological or what have you. In what is this knowledge embedded? And this is what the sacred is all about, whether it is Christian or Native American - to see the greater meaning that is meant for our minds - and what our minds are meant for. Allegory - in it is the background to give us the words and the art and the meaning of the everyday. In it, we see beyond life and death to an eternal that is open to us. In it we find inspiration to live, even through hard times.
A dream is usually just a dream until it is given life through coherent meaning. And life is just life without the same deeper consideration. For this the movie is good, for if it does not point exactly to your way, it points us all to use the gift of allegory, to use this gift of finding greater meaning which gives life to life and life to death and to all that surrounds and permeates them. FK
Then I was canoeing down rapids, then on a rocky pinnacle covered with ice, skis on my feet. Those with me were below yelling, "just slide down. It will be all right." I did, and it was, and at the bottom, again I realized that I was at the end of the journey, the people I was with those from my year abroad in Mexico when an undergraduate, those with whom I had gone on pilgrimage to Rome with, among others. I was standing then across the street from them, alone, while they waved goodbye to me from the canoe, about to continue down another river without me. I wanted to be with them, but it was my time to leave, and I waved back, with one hand first, then with two. But it was not enough. I wished to convey in my wave all the trip had meant, at first the fellowship of it, and then the deep meaning of it; how our trip was one of not only companionship, but the sharing of hardships and with that, the learning of the meaning of love. I wished to make a signal with my hands that meant all that, but couldn't quite. I wished to show them what it meant, what our journey really was, even though they knew.
When I awoke, it became clear - life is a journey to learn about love. It is not a new idea, but in the context struck deeper than mere words. It was fact in deed. And that is what allegory is: not the day to day stuff of our reality, but what is meant in the overall passing of reality. It is the meaning of life that is beyond the incidentals of life, although not exclusive of them. Allegory does not direct us to, for instance, focus on our argument with our wife over who let the toilet run overnight, but rather what the greater meaning of the marriage is and has been.
Jorge Luis Borges wrote that allegories are no longer written, lost to the modern novel form after the Age of Reason. I forget why he said that was, but to me it is obvious: we no longer see the bigger picture for what it is, but rather insist on reality, or on fantasy that satisfies a desire. Although I did not know it at the time of writing, my book, "Dream Weaver," is an allegory, a subliminal memory of what that section of the past meant in a sense beyond the immediate circumstances. And so was the movie we saw last night, "God's Not Dead."
In the first 15 minutes I had a sinking feeling about the movie - it was a set-up of harshly materialistic people against a few brave Christian believers. The star was a college freshman who was challenged by his vehemently atheistic professor of philosophy to prove that God was not dead. Through it he loses his girlfriend, but he sticks to his guns. You know who is going to win. Others, too, are abandoned because of their faith or are attracted to it by their circumstances. But as I started to grimace, I realized that it was an allegory - not as real life proceeds, but as real life means to one who sees it through the eyes of faith. This movie might be offensive to those who are not Christian, and this is certainly a shortcoming, but it should be taken as allegory, and in this it is true, as my dream told: life is not about the immediate impressions of things, of strict reality, but of the meaning in which it is embedded. To understand this, we must have an openness to see, just as the music or art lover must be open not only to sound or the colors of the paint, but what they mean as overall works. This applies to all knowledge of this world, whether it be scientific or sociological or what have you. In what is this knowledge embedded? And this is what the sacred is all about, whether it is Christian or Native American - to see the greater meaning that is meant for our minds - and what our minds are meant for. Allegory - in it is the background to give us the words and the art and the meaning of the everyday. In it, we see beyond life and death to an eternal that is open to us. In it we find inspiration to live, even through hard times.
A dream is usually just a dream until it is given life through coherent meaning. And life is just life without the same deeper consideration. For this the movie is good, for if it does not point exactly to your way, it points us all to use the gift of allegory, to use this gift of finding greater meaning which gives life to life and life to death and to all that surrounds and permeates them. FK
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