The Labor of Living—Loving—Learning
“Your daily life is your temple and religion.” The Prophet, Gibran
For many people this means that careers, jobs and professions become their “temple and religion.” The word religion derives from the Latin: re-ligare, to apply a ligament. I have long been fascinated that the origin of the word is biological and not “spiritual.” Evidently, whoever coined the word religion understood that it is the soul’s equivalent of holding the body together. After all, if climbing Half Dome is impossible without ligaments, perhaps it is equally impossible to climb spiritual mountains without a personal “religion.”
A huge amount of time and energy must be dedicated to daily labors which are necessary to survive. There is, however, a more subtle, Herculean struggle to discover who we are as individuals and how we can maximize our efforts of achieving our richest, fullest physical, mental and spiritual human experience.
Ralph Emerson challenged Biodesign students to write their own bibles. This was not a “religious” challenge in a literal sense, but merely a suggestion that they may want to begin collecting verses, phrases, books etc. that would help guide and enrich their lives. If “One day in the wilderness is worth cartloads of books,” (Muir) then, for many students, the experiential value of going to Yosemite, Grand Canyon and Mendocino could be enough to build a lifetime on. On the other hand, there were students who began a lifetime process of writing their own bible (with a little “b”).
The word bible is a shortened form of biblioteca which is a library of stories, history, legends, myths and socio-cultural information. It is heartwarming to know that some students have continued working on their personal “bible” for as long as 35 years. Actually, if Gibran is correct, all of our daily life and work involves nothing less than working on our “temple and religion.”
When I began writing Biodesign Out For A Walk, I did not consider it as a little “b” bible. After it was released, however, others may have read it differently. During our recent “Virtual Book Tour,” one person commented, “The book is highly controversial, ‘over-the-top’ with religion, but the author’s views were interesting.” After hearing about the book, a long-time friend of mine sarcastically asked me if it was “The Gospel according to Lowell”? I am not a Biblical scholar, however it is common knowledge that the shortest sentence in the Bible is “Jesus wept.” As I was writing this, I burst into fits of laughter. The shortest line in BOFAW can be found in “The Revised Version,” ;o) page 211; “THEY LAUGHED!” It may be the most profound line in the book. The students faced many challenging ideas that adults are often afraid to face, some of which are currently causing wars, death and destruction. There were moments of intense pain and sorrow in each and every class, however, the overriding response to the lessons was to laugh.
In the US today, it may be politically and scientifically incorrect to refer to “The Holy Bible,” but there is nothing incorrect about students who accepted Emerson’s challenge and heeded Henry Thoreau’s warning by striving to avoid, “getting to the end of their life and realizing that they had not fully lived.”
Little wonder, it is with great pleasure that I paraphrase John Muir and regard the 700+ courageous Biodesigners as “Immortal.” It may also be apparent to some that I was truly like “Ishmael,” and supremely blessed to have been along for the journey.