I begin writing each week (usually) on Monday or Tuesday; sometimes later; never earlier. I write throughout the week and continue to revise my writing and fine tune my thoughts through Saturday. I have published more than 100 posts on more than 100 consecutive Saturdays. When I begin writing I usually have a general idea of the direction and destination. Some posts are a continuation of previous week’s thoughts, though each week I do my best to create a post that will also stand on its own. All posts are in some way connected to one’s search for Truth, Wisdom, and (upper-case) Happiness. Most posts (as I think and write) offer some surprise. And some posts begin with a thought or discovery that feels significant, so I jump on it and write to where it takes me, with no (consciously) planned route or destination; this is one of those weeks.
I read the excerpt below last night; (Monday). The character speaking is from Dennis LeHane’s work of fiction ‘Live By Night’. It feels relevant. We will see where it takes me.
“A loan shark breaks a guy’s leg for not paying his debt, a banker throws a guy out of his home for the same reason, and you think there’s a difference, like the banker’s just doing his job but the loan shark’s a criminal. I like the loan shark because he doesn’t pretend to be anything else, and I think the banker should be sitting where I’m sitting right now; [in prison].”
The obvious connection to Truth and Wisdom is the realization that there is a very fine line between legitimacy and disdain. Personally I don’t like the banker or the loan shark. I believe to physically harm another is wrong. I also believe it is wrong to hide within the nooks and crannies of bureaucracy in order to avoid personal responsibility. Legality can not and should not be the standard for ethics or morality as it is impossible to legislate behavior in all possible circumstance; (though some certainly try). I do agree with Joe (in the excerpt above) that the loan shark is more truthful and responsible, though this does not (in my mind) excuse or justify the physical harm of another.
Now with that out of my system, I want to dig a little deeper …
Though the loan shark may have a sense of personal responsibility and truthfulness, and the banker may be oblivious and/or ignorant, there is no evidence that either have a complete sense of Light, Dark, and the importance of shared consciousness. The loan shark may have a better grasp of the Dark and the banker may appear to have a better grasp of the Light, but again the banker may be play-acting, oblivious, or lost in a maze of bureaucracy. Neither are complete; and this may be part of the relevance I intuited when I first read the passage – every individual possesses some attributes that contribute to a whole, and due to one’s humanity some of those attributes are not what one would deem admirable. Even if the banker’s and the loan shark’s attributes were commingled with those of someone you might nominate for sainthood, the result would still be a mixture of Dark and Light and would fall short of Perfection. And… I have previously stated that no one person is any more or less necessary than any one other person. For the sake of balance, I believe the banker, the loan shark, and the saint-elect are each as necessary and as indispensable to empirical humanity. I believe the only theoretic path to a True Whole – an Absolute Perfection – in this empirical existence is to synthesize the energy of every human that has ever lived or will ever live, past, present, and future. A daunting task, and of course (at least today) not possible; but the mental exercise illustrates the sheer immensity of humanity, and the absolute necessity of each individual.
These are all valid thoughts and an interesting application of Joe’s perspective, but so far this feels like a review. I will keep digging …
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Perhaps this comparison of the banker and the loan shark is relevant on a more basic level. (I’m not yet sure where I’m going with this, but we’ll ride it out.) Perhaps I am struck by Joe’s perspective because (like it or not) it highlights our very human need for attention. When the loan shark breaks a leg, it feels more personal. When the banker (using intermediaries) throws someone to the curb, it feels more impersonal. To hurt is to live; to be ignored – a nobody – or (worse yet) a number – is to lose (at least) a little vibrancy. If the loan shark breaks my leg, I will feel and I will be moved; if the banker has me thrown out of my home I will also feel and be moved, but as a result of a series of detached, emotionless, disinterested legal maneuvering; and because of this indifference, a piece of my humanity slips into a coma.
We have become a world of specialists all just doing a job and we learn to see things from that perspective; (a police officer sees criminals, a doctor sees sick people, a store clerk sees complainers, a banker sees numbers). We have lost sight of the bigger picture; we no longer see people. People get in the way of doing a job. I believe a complete person has become unnecessary; we simply take the piece (of that person) that we need, to complete a given task, and we move on.
Perhaps this is the way it has always been; but that does not make it good. Perhaps throughout history humanity has limited the degree of attainable shared consciousness by creating adversarial relationships; but that does not mean we should not strive for the previously unattainable. There are many past impossibilities that are now possible and tangible. Perhaps these fine lines between specialists are there to define a short leap. Perhaps if the loan shark could leap into the consciousness of the banker, (and the banker into the consciousness of the loan shark), then from there perhaps both could leap into the consciousness of a philanthropist, and the three could then leap into the consciousness of the homeless family they are trying to help, with the ongoing, self-perpetuating result being an ever-expanding universal consciousness that will pull us forward, as a whole, closer and closer to Truth, Wisdom, and Happiness.
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So perhaps the tale of the banker and the loan shark simply represents encouragement to get in touch; understand that humanity is both a collection of individuals and a perfected whole; and understand that each individual is a whole unto her or himself and as necessary and indispensable as any one other individual, regardless of circumstance.