A Singular Point of View

Sometime ago, I wrote an essay, Mirror of a Lesser God, which dealt with problems we all encounter in marriage. It has been inspired by a movie entitled Children of a Lesser God, although other than a partial title, it had nothing to do the film. Of course, in relation to the Source of Infinite Potential, we are all children, if for no other reason that we have infinity of growth in front of us. We’re immortal, remember?

Now after years of observations, I note that what is true of marital relationships holds true for the rest of humanity. We are only capable of seeing those errors in others, which we harbor, perhaps deep below the surface of our consciousness, in ourselves. I am reminded of the biblical saying that god’s eyes are too pure to see evil. Well, ours are not. We are rather good in perceiving evil in those we live with; also in governments, churches, teachers, perhaps co-workers. In all people other than in our own selves.

Of course, there is not such thing as evil. Ask any accused. There is only a difference of opinion. Yet the direct consequence of disagreement is that we invariably blame others for our own (hidden) inadequacies.

Those who have a-bombs shout the loudest to stop others from having them. “Keep the taxes down”, scream the richest amongst us. “We love peace”, shout the manufacturers and dealers in arms louder than anyone else in the world. The rest of us think of ourselves as being above such mundane weaknesses. To repeat, our eyes are not too pure to see inequities in others.

Love thy enemies? You must be kidding!

What is more, our recollection of events in interpersonal relations is NEVER objective, as we, all of us, are capable of looking at things from a single point of view. Even a child knows that things (events) look different from different sides, yet we, adults, tend to forget this self-evident limitation.

There is a way out.

“Judge not, and you shall not be judged: condemn not, and you shall not be condemned…”^[1]

Of course, we could say that this is an old, outdated, expression that belongs only to religious zealots.

Or… we could say that it has absolutely nothing to do with any religion, and see if it works in real life. National debt? Think of the trillions of dollars we’d save on armaments alone, if we did that!

But, you might ask, wouldn’t it be dangerous?

For whom? For the immortals?

[1] Luke 6:23