As a young man I often wondered what God looked like; the commonly held view being a hulk of a fellow with a long flowing white beard and a booming voice. There didn’t seem to be many other descriptions. Then one day, I read that He or perhaps She, could be referred to, or described as, the All; the Alpha and the Omega, the Seen and the Unseen, all that Is and all that Isn’t. I mean everything; even the Good and the Bad and those that didn’t as yet have an affiliation.
It occurred to me then that the Devine Presence could just as well be regarded as the Non-Presence; a duality of all experiences, which somewhat varied from most other religious descriptions of God. So, with this in mind, I decided to take the description or idea of God a bit further and depict Him as all experiences, offered from the one table: the Smorgasbord of Life, realizing that in this dualistic world, good has a problem existing without bad.
It seems that our feeble brains can’t determine where we are in the scheme of things without dualistic points of reference, or comparison. We exist somewhere between good and bad, dumb and smart, and rich or poor. If God truly is the all, ‘here’ He or She can’t exist in our three dimensional dual reality, without a ‘there’ and without experiencing each position, we would literally have no ‘where’. This may well mean that life’s dualities create our real purpose, direction, and indeed our individual journeys through life.
For instance, Mr. X has a need or desire to become courageous, because of all the beatings he received as young Mr. X, So, he chooses bravery from the table selections on offer. The question is, what’s his courage worth, if he doesn’t have its opposite, if he has no adversary? Yes, there would be no need for such a useless virtue. Hence, ladies and gentlemen, the need for ‘The Smorgasbord’. It contains every experience we have ever sought. After all, once we determine who we wish to be, we can’t become it until we’ve experienced it. Thought is just a vapour that disperses and becomes nothing recognizable, unless we bring it to life and realize it … by doing.
And, no … you can’t be a non-participant. Everyone partakes from ‘The Smorgasbord’, whether it be a conscious decision or an unconscious one. Without an opposite reference point, we would literally be lost and purposeless.
Now here’s the big question. If we can’t escape ‘The Smorgasbord’, how can we ever see humanity in the same way again, if we’re all so connected and needed for each other’s journey? This could well mean that your enemy is as precious, or perhaps even more valuable than your best friend.
Ken "Charlie" Grace 