Inquiry |
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We have decided, each within ourselves, to engage in a dialogue with people who may have something to tell us about ourselves and about the universe we all inhabit. We understand now that dialogue is, from a narrow point of view, a signalling system from one consciousness to others. From a broader point of view, though, dialogue is greater than the Morse Code of words and meanings; it is a living text, a resonant body of thought, expressed sometimes unwillingly in the face of fear and, yet, sometimes expressed in utter abandonment of self and privilege.
What we intend is an Inquiry into subjects that, for reasons of our own or for reasons embedded in our culture, are difficult to reach. These subjects border on the taboo, on the prohibited, on the frightening truth of our being. We are reaching because we know that we need a better truth about these things, these states of mind, these shadows of our illusions. Inquiry is a form of courage. It might fail in any of us. Inquiry may reveal a horrible truth or a brilliant and beautiful truth. We do not know. We know only that we are human beings endowed through the great procession of ages and genes with self-awareness, consciousness, ethics, and preliminary wisdom. A colleague of ours has chosen to Inquire about his mother. Why? We do not know why, but we all know much about mothers and their fundamental place in the development of a child, a new person. Our inquiring colleague may discover that his mother was not perfect after all, or that she was not totally self-centered as he perhaps once believed. He may discover, from us, that his mother's memory must be reconstructed, and it is we who are in dialogue with him who must assist as best we can. You see, then, that Inquiry is a serious undertaking, one to be approached gently and with love. JB |