Finding Peace in a Mad World

Some days I wake up, read the news of the day, and marvel at how angry everyone seems to be. I know everyone isn’t angry but the news makes me think otherwise. Anger is newsworthy; peace doesn’t sell. At a basic level I’m really quite impressed with the anger because it shows passion for something. People are angry that the government bailed out the financial system and all that the people got was a stable (yet feeble) economy while investment bankers continue to make millions. People are angry that Joe Paterno is still coaching Penn State. People are angry that the government continues to wrack up debt. People are angry that Republicans are heartless. People are angry that Democrats are secret socialists. People are angry that the President hates Israel. People are angry that Herman Cain’s campaign manger smokes. I mean there is a lot of anger out there. Sure it might seem misplaced to you or to me, but to the people feeling it…rest assured, it is real.

If I let myself, I can be angry too. But I don’t want to be angry. I want to be at peace. So I choose to be at peace. Easy for me to say? Not really. I’d like to explore the idea of why I’m at peace. It has very little to do with economics. I think there are a bunch of reasons but the big one is that I am convinced that I am not my body. What? I’m talking about me personally, the essence of me, the real me, the me that is inside my head. That me is an immortal being, a real personal something that outlasts my body. There’s a great quote by a 20^th century Jesuit named Teilhard de Chardin, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings havng a human experience.” Let that sink in.

If you come to the place in your thought where you are convinced that you actually live forever, it does change how you view the anger of this world. You can be in the world, yet not of the world. Once you are at peace with immortality, then the focus becomes the nature of that immortal existence and that is a wonderful journey. The fruit of that journey takes us back to Main Street and we can ever so slightly ease the pain.