A Decent Starting Point: An Old Hat or an Elephant Swallowing a Boa Constrictor?

There are several ways to start this series of online essays. But before I pull the starter handle and crank this motor into life, I might as well solidify the ultimate end-state. In my series of one page essays, I intend to try and capture the truths I have learned on my journey of my life's journey. These truths are not mere faith regurgitations, but ideas, proper forms that I have carved out the hardened concrete of conditioned paradigms. They are ideas that I have deliberately "CHOSEN". I emphasize this because this is not a polemical work designed to defend inherited beliefs.

No, this is my unique journey though 32 years of life and the unique stones and gems I have picked up along the path. While this has been a spiritual journey, I will not apply the adjective Religious.

Sufi riddles aside, I will state this plainly. I have strong SPIRITUAL beliefs. I despise RELIGION as a killer of the soul. So, yes, I believe in the spiritual, but separate it from religion.

Spiritual denotes "another world". Spirit does not need humanity, but in my opinion, humans are more complete with spirit.
Religion is a man-made structure, whether physical or mental or theological. But it is NOT spiritual. Religion needs humans, and humans are dependent on Religion.

I plan to write until I am spent.
When I am spent, I will collate these essays into a book.
So I guess these essays entail a journal of sorts. I will endeavor to write one page a day, on whatever topic seems particularly cogent at the time. Perhaps, as I write, an outline will loom out of the mists of my personal Ginnungagap. I suspect one thought will follow another until the writing is done.

And so, what about my first post's title?

If you are familiar with one of my favorite human beings, the French writer and aviator from the early part of the 20th century, Antoine de Saint Exupery, you will have an immediate reference point. In his seminal and ever-popular work, The Little Prince, he opens the book with a sufic disclaimer of sorts. He remarks that his first work of art as a child was that of a boa constrictor swallowing an elephant. When he showed adults his artwork, they only saw an old hat. So he reproduced the drawing, only in the second attempt, he gave an X-ray view of the snake so adults could understand his drawing.

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The adults responded by telling him to cease drawing foolish pictures of Boa Constrictors and focus on more important things. Thus marked the premature end of an artistic career. However, he does say that he kept the drawings, and when he met new people, he would show them the first picture and ask what they saw. If it was a hat, then he would "get down on their level" and speak of only practical, economic, and material realities. However, if they saw an elephant swallowed by a boa constrictor, he would sit back and have a REAL conversation about the beauty of a sunset or whether a distant star was alive.

The story is enjoyable in an anecdotal way, but it has a deeper meaning. Simply, that if you are an adult of the "muggle" variety (an adult whose inner child is imprisoned by the iron suit of the archetypal "Grown-up"), then you will only see what you have been conditioned to see. Your eyes are closed, and you are asleep. If you see the elephant in the constrictor, the hidden truth, then you are awake. You will understand. There is a chance for you. Either way, like a sufi fable, depending on the health of your inner child, you will either see just the superficial story, or if you have eyes to see, the greater truth carried inside like a letter in an envelope.

So.

In my following posts, there will be many boa constrictors with elephants rampaging inside. If a lot of my stuff seems to be just "old hat" or simply inscrutable, then you should probably hit the "next blog" button.

Please be patient.
I have a lot to say, because a lot has happened in my life.
I hope by breaking it all down into short essays, blog entries, it will sort itself into something coherent.

Here's hoping.

Cheers!

Tomorrow's Projection: Intelligent Design