The wolf…the dragon fly and I…we are one

Hanging on the wall of my study is a large vertical picture that is one of my all time favorites. In the middle is the distinguished head of an American Indian. Above and attached is a magnificent head of a wolf…and directly below is a beautiful dragon fly…at the bottom in calligraphy are these words…”The wolf…the dragon fly and I…we are One.”

Science today is confirming what many of us have long known. The relationship between animals and humans is psychic…mystical…and mind boggling. Two recent major articles in the Science section of the New York Times on this subject just takes your breath away. Many of us can say we knew that already before science confirmed it.

Thomas Paine said it well…”Men and books lie…Only nature never lies.” And Mark Twain added this: “Man is the only animal that blushes…or needs too.” The animal kingdom…with the exception of man, Homo sapiens, has no knowledge of falsehoods. The live in the eternal now…the natural rhythms of the moment…the flow…the spontaneous emotion, feelings and response to the present.

There is one subject that brings out all of the passionate, Marine Corps type anger, in every bone and cell of my body. No, it is not religion. It is animal cruelty.
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Intolerance

In a recent newspaper interview in another state the reporter said this to me: “the fundamentalists say that you are intolerant. Do you think that you are?” I said to her…”you bet…I am totally intolerant of intolerance. People that use God and the bible as a big 2X4 plank to hit all the rest of us over the head are beneath contempt and need to be resisted.”

In a speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Salman Rushdie presented one of the great truths of our time. He said this: “Special interest groups, claiming the moral high ground, now demand the protection of the censor. The fundamentalist Christian Right say we must “respect” their beliefs and agenda.

Criticism, they say, is off limits as being disrespectful. Citizens of free societies, democracies, do not preserve their freedom by pussyfooting around their fellow citizens’ opinions. Skepticism and freedom are indissolubly linked. And it is the skepticism of journalists, their unwillingness to be impressed, that is their most important contribution to the freedom of the free world. It is the disrespect of journalists for power, for orthodoxy, for party lines, for ideologies, for vanity, for arrogance, for folly, for pretension, for corruption and for stupidity that I would like to celebrate, and that I urge you all, in the name of freedom, to preserve.”
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Joseph Campbell

In my weekly Sunday Symposium I am now going through the life and thought of Joseph Campbell. He was a man who opened my brain/mind/spirit/soul to a new world of scholarship and mystery. He was a man who became my good friend.

My friendship with Campbell began when I spent three magical weeks with him one summer high in the Montana mountains. He lectured about five hours a day allowing ample time for one-on-one discussion. I remember vividly a day that changed my life. Just the two of us….walking….on one of those glorious days in the Moon When the Ponies Shed. We were at 7000 feet. The sky was an intense blue, undimmed by haze or smog. It was “like wine” as they say. Aspen leaves were quaking.

Walking on such a day, in such companionship, is a spiritual experience…when in silence, or soft talk…you feel…smell…hear…see…touch…and taste everywhere the Mystery. To move toward the Mystery of our being we must allow our spirit to soar and fly in the timeless quest for the sacred. Throughout history that quest has been described in many different ways in the myths of humankind.

At one point in our walk that day, Joseph turned to me and said…”Bill…just keep pointing people toward the Mystery.” That became the title for my first book of essays…TOWARD THE MYSTERY.
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