Our heroes evolve as we do. As a pre-adolescent, for example, I was obsessed with comic books superheroes—which was a role, in turn, I ascribed to rockstars in my teens. In my early twenties, philosophers represented the ultimate definition of cool and this, gradually, gave way to poets and artists in general, in my thirties, whom I regarded as true free spirits and independent thinkers.
Now, in my mid forties, my superheroes are mystics and saints. I study their lives and utterances for clues on how to realize this remote human possibility. I realize how difficult and rare it is to embark on the great adventures of the spirit life that they undertook, these intrepid explorers of inner space. I revere those virtuosos of love and longing, the way I did their caped and masked counterparts in comic books: for their inspiring sense of purpose and their willingness to sacrifice all to achieve it.
Today’s poem is not directly about mystics or saints. But, it is related to a faculty that, if we attempt to faithfully develop throughout our lives, we might hope to experience a glimpse of their exalted state:
I used to marvel at the saints who purposely subjected themselves to bodily abuses. Now I understand that this passion for pain, even in the torture of martyrdom, represents the haste and impatience to no longer be interrupted and disturbed by the evil that can come from this side... So great is my fear of the body's abuse of the soul...
—poet Rainer Maria Rilke (in a letter to his muse Lou Andreas Salome)
Remaining Awake
Whether or not we recognize it,
we all carry beepers that go off all hours,
they're in-built and difficult to get rid of
—let's call them our conscience.
You may press the mute button
but you can't keep it down for long
well-functioning models are dream-proof
instructing us in code, while we slumber
There are two ways through:
one is fiendish complexity,
the other is utter simplicity.
Inner work that we postpone only piles up
overwhelms and threatens to bury us,
best to take the call when morality dials in.
It's a sign of spiritual maturity
when lesser transgressions
prick our virtue the way
major ones did before.
Our lives are like a long day;
it's easier to fall sleep,
if we’ve remained awake.
© Yahia Lababidi
(Images: Pixabay 1, 2)
