LET'S TALK ABOUT . . .



                                                    ABSOLUTELY YOUR'S


Last time we asked the question of epistemology, or  how do you know what you know?  In this blog I promised to explore, how do we know whatever we know is true?  It is more a question of who or what we have chosen to trust as having authority in our lives.  If, as I proposed in my second blog, we truly need an external plumb line in our lives to anchor us, then that plumb line carries a lot of weight in terms of authority.

Plumb lines actually serve multiple purposes in our lives.  They not only have authority, they also serve as reference points against which we can develop and espouse coherent and consistent belief systems that keep our lives moored and constant.  They carry the weight of informing, affirming, confirming and reassuring us regarding the choices we make and the lives we live.

We all have a plumb line, or even multiple plumb lines if we embrace relativism, pluralism, etc. as authoritative and definitive standards in our lives.  This is why certain chosen plumb lines, like relativism and pluralism leave us feeling adrift, lost and confused; they themselves lack constancy and consistency.  As human beings we all need a certain amount of constancy and consistency in our lives.  We all gravitate in some direction in order to meet this need.  It is called teleology, we are directional beings.  For the most part, our lives are primarily lived out moving in the direction of getting our real or perceived needs met.

I would challenge you to spend the next week aware of  two things.  First, listen for how many times  you hear yourself or others use the word need.  Second, be aware of how often you do the things you do in order to meet some real or perceived need in your life.  Become more aware of why those around you or even at large in our world(s) are doing the things that consume most of their time and energy; it is primarily because of some real or perceived need in their lives, society or even on the world stage.

In the final analysis each one of us is going to choose to invest faith or belief in some internal or external reference point or plumb line in order to anchor us, to make sense out of our lives, to answer those existential questions about the meaning of our existence.  We all have, are and will do this whether or not we are consciously aware we are doing so.  So in the final analysis, your plumb line is both faithfully yours and absolutely yours.  No one can live your life for you; you have to come to terms with these issues for yourself.  That is part of what it means to live out our lives; to exercise our dignity in the pursuit of the same.  That word dignity is huge is this regard.

In my next blog I would like to address issues of dignity as they fit into this construct.  I am sure that some or perhaps many of you would like me to simply tell you what I believe on this issues.  Do not weary!  I am laying a foundation, attempting to build a solid construct, on which to do so.  Exercise those rational muscles.  Enter the struggle, even if you have already made your choices . . .  check them out! I believe we have been spoon-fed what to believe for way too long; not doing the hard work of understanding why we have chosen to believe what we do about existential issues that serve as both internal and external plumb lines in our lives.

This is why many young adults are struggling in our world.  They are searching for answers.  They know what the last generation has chosen.  They are often in agreement with those choices and often disappointed with where that has taken our world.  They know through education, world travel experiences and their own states of enlightenment that there is something amiss.  They want real, authentic, trustworthy answers they can integrally bank their lives on.  As a nineteen year old Calculus major on academic scholarship who almost died, I made such a journey.

Until next time . . . this is, Just Janice.