Now and Zen

November 9, 1999

It's one of those blustery, wet November days. It's raining on campus, the clouds are low and misty. I hate to use the windshield wipers, distractions that they are. Heading southwest on 97, approaching home I notice the sky ahead is clear. Well, mostly clear. There is definately blue sky speckled with white, fluffy clouds, like the ones we get in the summer. But there's also another cloud. A tiny, dark-brown cloud - much closer to me than the high white fluffy ones. This little cloud is raining. I can see the tell-tale dark streaks plummeting towards earth. Behind the little dark-brown cloud is the summer blue sky - it is a three-dimensional effect that defies description.

I've never seen a tiny cloud, all in it's own, raining onto a small patch of earth. I want to see it rain itself out. But traffic presses me on, and I pass the little cloud while it's still draining onto some house, now behind me. I look to the sky again, hoping to spy another solitary raincloud. I don't see one. But I do see a fire, far off in the distance, billowing plumes of dark-brown smoke into the air. Most likely an orchard burning off some of the Autumn prunings. The fire is sending streaks of dark-brown stuff up into the sky.

I think about the little dark-brown cloud, raining dark-brown streaks down, and then then fire, sending dark-brown streaks up. It's very ying and yang.

I read today, about Emile Durkheim's Functions of Deviation.

Durkheim believed that society can not have good without bad. That bad defines good. That deviance affirms cultural values and norms and promotes social unity and encourages social change. He also states that response to deviation clarifies moral boundaries.

Hmmm, I think. More ying and yang.

So, I think about Durkheim's theory and try to put it to modern day use. The push and pull of society that affirms that we, as a whole, are doing things right.

I make a mental list of some of the deviance in society today.

1) Theft
2) Drug abuse
3) Spousal abuse
4) Assault
5) Child abuse
6) Murder

According to Mr. Durkheim, such things as those that appear on my list offer up the balance that keeps society on the level. Does this mean that without, let's say, spousal abuse, we could not define the kind and correct way in which to treat our spouse? Or does this mean that the latent benefits of spousal abuse, such as employment for social workers, or hospital staff, is what yangs this ying? Or maybe what he's saying is that, without spousal abuse, we,as a whole, would not be able affirm the "good" of marriage? If some man out there doesn't beat his wife, are all the other men lost in a sea of confusion on how to treat their wives? It's a scary thought.

The same questions ring true for the other items on my list. I hesitate to believe that common sense folks such as ourselves need affirmation in this way. But what of our culture? We are born to this world helpless little sausages, tiny bundles of cells without so much as a single chalk-mark on our clean little slates. We are at the socializing mercy of our parents, our teachers, our society. So, we are taught, by example and lesson, what is "good" and what is "bad". Is it possible to teach a youngster what is "good" without explaining the "bad" and its consequences? Or is it even necessary to explain the bad? Think about a child. They are inherently "bad" in many ways (at least by societal standards). They talk back, they have deplorable manners,they tell little lies. Ah, but is this "bad", or is this just the "testing of the waters"? We explain to a child that bad manners are a "bad" thing and we praise "good" manners. Ying and yang.

We live in a society of opposites. It's no wonder many of us become confused and strike out as deviants. Sadly, statistics show that the most devious of the deviants fit into social classes such as poor, or minorities (racial, ethnic) or under-priviledged. Land of opportunity. More like, class of opportunity.

As "good" people, we take comfort in our knowledge of the "bad" and our resolve to steer clear of it. I guess you could say the "good" people are also deviant...deviant of the "bad".

I mentioned a few days ago, that I had happened across an interesting writer in Australia. He has a theory on good and bad. Please, take the time to visit Mike and read some of his theories, particularly his good and bad theory. Mike is a ying and yang kinda guy, too.

Just a quick thought about the last item on my deviant list: "murder".

Last night, on television, I saw two lions kill and eat a wounded lioness. The voice-over guy said, "the instinct to kill an injured animal is so strong that they simply can't control themselves".

Hmmm.

I've never seen an immoral lion.

And then I think about a certain doctor, whose name I won't mention for fear of violent retribution, who sits in a jail cell for doing just what the lions did, but with a needle instead of violent jaws and claws.

Maybe killing is a really bad example. I don't condone it. It raises a fear in me of no less proportions than it does with you, I assure you. But I am a product of the same society as you, so there you go.

I think I will leave Durkheim for now.

I learned how to lie today. Well, I actually learned how to detect a liar today. Funny, the stuff they teach in college these days! So, if you read this and I say, "I am handing out 100 dollar bills to the first 20 people that email me today" and you notice a blank look in my eyes, you see me glance away, I start breathing rapidly, I only half-smile, I fidget....then you know I am lying. Interestingly, the sweat from my palms doesn't show on the screen, so now you wonder, should I email her, just in case?

Hmmm, again.

I think I may just go and replay my raincloud zen in my mind's VCR.

I will check back, to see how many 100 dollar bills I'll be withdrawing tomorrow.

My e-mail, just in case :)

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