A Whiter Shade of Pale

In the end it all comes down to nothing. A baby toddling toward its mother, a graduate receiving his diploma, an old man reaching for his walker, a tearful son or daughter standing over a grave. Why do we try so hard and go so wrong when all that is needed is self-love? What makes us watch our dismal mental movies of failure over and over and never think to get up and leave?

We believe we are powerless in a world gone mad. We feel terrible because we are “not good enough.” But by whose standards are we judging ourselves. Why do we watch TV in order to feel worse about ourselves. Why do we rush to purchase deodorant and just the right new car when inwardly we are parched for pure water? We have Bibles and other holy books close at hand where the truth is laid out for us. We say we believe and yet we feel miserable. Whose fault is it but our own? And how do we mend a broken heart, as the song asks.

A young woman with cancer has just lost her brother to the war and her sister to cancer. What words of wisdom will comfort her? Platitudes are useless and true comforters stand powerless as well. What would I say to that young woman?

Only silence offers solace at times like these. A holy hush that admits that as humans, we can never know the final truth until we become so one with it that our very being is a healing.