Asking Shadows What They Want

“Reality is harsh to the feet of shadows.” – The Great Divorce

“Did you ask her what she wanted? It is the wisest thing to ask the dead.” – American Gods

“Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?” – Till We Have Faces

The thought I’ve been directed to for these past two weeks (sorry about not posting a blog last week) has been about becoming more than what we are now. Not in the way that self-help books talk about, and not in the way that spirituals talk about finding our inner god. They weren’t about becoming something greater than a human, but becoming fully human.

We are shadows, unable to tread on what is true.
We are not dead, but we are not fully alive either.
We are unable to speak to the gods unless we know what we are truly saying.

So often I notice myself doing something and forget the reason why I am doing it. I don’t mean something like Alzheimer’s when you just cannot remember what you are doing. It’s more like when you are going to work, but forget why you wanted that job in the first place. You forget the reason why you first found someone attractive. You are doing something, but you’ve left out the substance.

It’s the difference between having sex and making love.

Plato says that there are four cardinal virtues: wisdom, justice, restraint, and courage. These are known as the cardinal virtues because they are the virtues on which all other virtues can be built. There can be a danger in pursuing virtues if you don’t even have the basics down, just as good things can become bad if done at a wrong time. Think of it like giving man dying of thirst water. If he drinks it too quickly, we will get sick, yet if you wait too long, he will die. Obviously, one is worse than the other, but understanding both can help avoid any bad situations.

Introspection can be a very valuable tool if you have the training to use it well.

Before one can become fully human, one must know what and where ones is. I doubt anyone has reached a level of perfection by accident, and I doubt even further that it can be done alone and by one’s own power. But still, how can we have any chance of it if we do not even begin to try and understand who we are? How can we enjoy reality if we don’t know that we are shadows? How can we live if we don’t know what our passions are? How can we talk to the Divine if we do not even know what we are saying? These are rhetorical questions though, and they don’t need answers. But it is about looking into your core, your soul, your heart of heart.

I might not be explaining this well. It is hard to find the right words, and harder still to speak in a way that can be universally understood. But I am convinced that the following question is important and deserves some time, maybe even a few decades, to answer.

What do you want?