My encounters with the 'rich young man'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aEIqmbFffU

A series of wonderful revelations were sparked yesterday and the day before by two encounters I had with someone I've never met up until day before yesterday. 

I had heard from a few passersby over the last week that there was a march against fracking planned for yesterday here in DC.  The day before yesterday a mid-fortyish woman who was here for that march happened by the Canadian Embassy, saw the signs that I have, both of which say, ‘Till enough are seen dying for it, CO2 won’t stop.’  The signs stopped her and she chose to engage in a conversation with me that lasted probably 20 min. or so. 

She'd come down from Northeast Pennsylvania, as she described it.   She was struck to the heart it seem by what the signs said – ‘Till enough are seen dying for it, CO2 won’t stop.’ Two or three times during our conversation her own memories came into her mind of what's happening in Pennsylvania due to the fracking, and she cried.  Very strong emotions. 

It was with such gladness that she saw what my signs said, what I was doing, why I was doing what I do.  Deep gladness; joy; appreciation; gratitude; relief.  We spoke about the strategy of it, the psychology of it, the science of it.   Deep joy and gratitude on her part for what she was hearing and seeing. 

That is, until she steered the conversation toward, ‘well, Loving, what should I do?.   Very open, eager, sincere, receptive she was.  And within 5 min. the conversation pretty abruptly ended, from that question of hers.  Because what I was doing, the view of the world that I was following, was brought close to her in her life in those last 5 min. and she backed away from it as someone would back away from a blast furnace. 

It was painful for me. I was reminded of it when she passed by early yesterday morning; and I mistakenly guessed she was again going to stop to chat. [Laughter.]  She wasn’t rude.  She wasn't mean, but oh boy, she was not going to stop to chat.  ‘Oh no, I have to get, I have to move on and see what's happening,’ she motioned in the direction to suggest that that's where groups might be gathering.  Maybe they were, maybe they weren’t.

This was not a cowardly woman by societal standards.

But shortly thereafter the Scripture, the story of Jesus and ‘the rich young man,’ ‘the rich young ruler,’ came crowding into my mind.  I've had so many examples, so many encounters with the rich young man, but this one was just so graphic. Nice woman! But that final five minutes of our dialogue, of my sharing, brought close to her and her life a view of what stopping fracking would cost, and she undoubtedly thinks that intellectually she saw deep flaws in what I was saying, but clearly that's not the case - that wouldn’t evoke an emotional response; that wouldn’t evoke an avoidance response.  No.  What she felt was, ‘I don't want to go there!’  ‘No! No!  Pay everything?!?’ None of which I had outlined; I didn't talk, I was explicit, ‘Ma’am, I don't know what you should do.  But I can tell you what I've, what I've calculated it is going to take.’ 

And she saw, I guess, the implications for her life was, ‘you mean I don't get to pick and choose what days I come to demonstrate? I don't get to pick and choose how much of my life I dedicate against the most powerful army ever to be on the planet, going after $20 to $80 trillion in revenue? I thereby lose control, I lose my status quo?!?!?!’   

It was, it was a hand pulling away from a pot of boiling water. 

I’ve written of this parable, I spoken of it, I’ve thought of it.  It's come to my mind, but never so deeply as now.   

Jesus only had hope for the one in 1 million that valued nothing as much as all of creation; nothing as much as all of humanity; possibly as Abraham did in the story about how Abraham was even willing to sacrifice his son for the Creator.  I'd rather think it was - sacrifice his relationship with his son; for all of creation; for the creator, for all of humanity; for the future of his son; for his son’s Soul.

Jesus, Life, Love, is only available to those for whom nothing, no thing, is as valuable to them as all of creation, all of humanity, and possibly the Loving of all creation and all humanity.  By that I mean to focus on the 1 in a million – that Life is available only to those that Love that is in that one in 1 million person; that that person is in total solidarity with all of creation, and all of humanity – that person is unconditional love; is unconditional Life.  That’s what Life is about.  That’s what Love is about.  That’s what Jesus Is about. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.

When I think of the promising souls that I've been privileged to encounter, sometimes it can occur so far into the relationship, but so far it's always, to everyone’s surprise, theirs and mine, the rich young man. ‘I can't disappoint my parents,’ ‘I spent so much on my education that has to be fulfilled;’ ‘can't be abnormal in society;’ ‘I'll alienate people on the left, can’t do that;’ ‘I can't leave my sons;’  ‘I need to do x, y or z kind of work;’ ‘I'm married, my spouse doesn't want to go that direction.’

And whether or not those are worthy considerations, they are not what Gandhi referred to – ‘I will admit just one tyrant in my life, the still small voice within.’  These ‘reasons’ are not the still small voice within.  They are not conscience; they are not the Father that Jesus spoke of; conscience, heart, soul.  They’re at best, one level removed.  Could they be the dictates of conscience?  Conceptually, yes.  But not in the promising souls that I've seen.  No; profoundly unlikely.  It was not conscience, it was that which keeps one from ultimate servitude to conscience, to heart and soul in solidarity, to creation, to all of humanity, to unconditional love; to servitude to Life.

Is there anyone that is not the rich young man?

I think not. 

I think they are no longer on earth, or we’d have seen them by now. 

I think my father’s generation was the last.