Love = Tolerance

Story two is more of an observation. There is a story telling of this, but for time's sake I just want to say that the world of conformity (etymologically "self-shaped-ness"), is reassuring and efficient as you point out, but it is also unfulfilling, stagnant and really dull. This in my opinion is why a mechanistic society as you describe can't exist. We as humans are not wired that why. We want both change and comfort, to quote some Feri teachers we are human, born in paradox, and that is as that should be. There is no life without striving. There is no life without occasionally dancing in the streets. We are more complex than that and we refuse to be simplified.

you man!

davis

Nice story Pat. As always one story reminds me of two, but that is the way I work - nothing is ever as simple as it appears.

1) Sufi story of drinking the water - A wandering sage comes into a town where everyone appears to be outright insane. Most of the people are walking on their hands, only the old and infirm stand on their feet, people are chasing each other around singing songs rather than speaking intelligibly. The sage asks their God and asks what is this and their God says, "these people have been poisoned - they have drunk the water in their wells and the poison in the ground water has made them crazy - don't drink the water." The sage tries to speak with the people and they can't understand. He asks for foods and is given a plate of dirt. He asks for drink and they repeatedly offer him the water (which he refuses). This goes on for days in the rather drawn out version I usually tell, with the sage repeatedly asking his God what to do to help the people, with no useful reply. Finally the sage is disheartened. He is too weak from starvation to leave the town. He hasn't been able to communicate with a person in days and the miscommunications have caused him immeasurable pain, frustration and anguish. One final time he is offered a glass of water... and he drinks it.

Gotta love a religion that offers the lesson that being right with your deity and knowing you are in your right mind is on a very human level sometimes not as important as communication, understanding and human companionship.

I think I'm timing out so I'll post the other seperately.

davis

Love=Tolerance
Imaging a world where everyone agreed with you and everyone walk in lock step with each other. The world would run very efficiently, trains would run on time and everyone would node in agreement at how everything was ran so much like the workings of a fine watch. But what about the people that did not fit in this homogenized world, what about the people that weren’t able to make it on time or get in line with the others to get their share. These people that instead of walking in a straight line and getting there on time, stopped and smelled the flowers. These are the people that instead of standing in the straight line and looking forward, looked up at the stars and wondered what’s out there and how can I get there.
The other people that saw this would not be happy with this straggler, this malcontent, this strange one that did not fit into the mold that everyone else did so easily. Why couldn’t this “weirdo” just shut up and act normally. If you don’t isolate this abnormal one it could spread, and don’t you pull out the weed that doesn’t belong in the garden? The strong can police these miss- gilded ones and keep them from going astray.
We have been known to say love is the law, what about the ones that don’t agree? We call ourselves tolerant, but do we accept the ones that totally disagree with us. What if one of our deeply held beliefs where proven wrong, and someone that we dislike where the one that proved it to the world?
Love is just as powerful as hate, if not more so. Hate looks to destroy and criticize, love looks to grow and be tolerant. Love welcomes the different and the challenge of its well thought out ideas, whereas hate is intolerant of anything different and will not allow anything that disagrees with t to be tolerated.
What is stronger? What is harder to live by? These are question that only you can answer, because you are the one that has to live with the results of these actions.