Key Worker Extraordinary

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

We are, hopefully over the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic if, by no means, out of the woods just yet. A reader asks, do I blame China for not being as upfront as it might have been about the initial outbreak in Wuhan? No, I don't.  Humankind invariably loves to play the Blame Game, not least because it distracts attention from any contribution its own shortcomings may have played in ... whatever. Take climate change for example; no Devil or Fate working against us, but our own (rarely unselfish) needs. As for any God's intervening to save us all, a cleric once put to me that "God can save souls, and will if we ask Him, but everything else is down to us." Now, as regular readers know, I don't subscribe to any religion, but these words certainly got me thinking, and I was only about 12 ears-old at the time.] 

Now, I have to confess to occasional mood swings since I began my hormone therapy treatment for prostate cancer. Fortunately, my closest friends are very patient with me and are very supportive.

Funny, isn’t it, about some people? Family, friends, neighbours, work colleagues...Some rally round in a crisis and others run a mile. Not everyone appreciates that love, friendship or just being a good colleague involves teamwork even or perhaps especially when the team comprises of only two. 

Some people are not into a give-and-take scenario. They see something in someone they want and feel entitled - if only by association - to take, take, and take again. They have discovered an offload Channel, but not a two-way one. (Reciprocity is not in their vocabulary.) When it comes to giving something back, they don’t want to know since any relationship has to be on their terms or not at all. For the most part, they are not nasty people in the least (just being human?) and can be good company when life is running smoothly, but are too self-centred and self-absorbed to be anything but takers; being a giver requires too much effort, imposes on their personal space and makes unfair demands on their time. What we see is far less than what we get. (I remember thinking that once on a school visit to a waxworks museum.)

Meanwhile...

Reason not the need,’ cries King Lear in what is considered by many (including me) to be the greatest of Shakespeare’s plays.

It is true that need sets itself above reason in the sense that human nature rarely answers to logic. So when a follower of logic puts to a follower of religion, that he or she might explain what they mean by God, any reply is more likely to pertain to a personal  need than anything reason can attempt to rationalise. Oh, there will be references made to Holy Books and the usual get-out clause about Faith having less to do with reason than trust and/or divine inspiration, but that doesn’t really answer the question. 

As regular readers will know, it has long been my personal belief that religion has far more to do with a person’s need to believe in God than the existence of God as anything other than a metaphorical force behind all that is good in the world as opposed to all that is bad. That isn't to say, I don’t respect that need, I do. Moreover, I can relate to it far more than I can relate to any personified God. I respect all Faiths, too, but can neither enter into any nor would want to because, for me, Belief is not enough. I need to ask questions and keep on asking questions until any answers I may find begin to make some kind of sense rather like pieces in a jigsaw.

You, me, us…we are all parts of the same jigsaw.

If a sense of spirituality inspires me to ask questions, I take it from nature, my mentor in such matters even in childhood where religion offered me nothing no matter what I was told to the contrary or how hard I looked. More often than not, any debate abut existential life forces invariably shapes up along the lines of playing a blame game. At the end of the day, though, humankind has to accept its share o collective as well as personal blame for any natural and/or human forces working against a Here-and-Now playing host to both its natural and human worlds for better, for worse.

This poem is a kenning. 

KEY WORKER EXTRAORDINARY 

I am the curator

of a love-to-hate museum

down our way

where we all come to see

whatever it is we need

to be, smell, do a double-take

on works of art

bent on taking us to task

for our shortcomings

I am the curator

of obscure desires haunting

mind-body-spirit,

inspiring orgasms sublime

just for playing time

at its own game, letting its tides

take the blame,

(any old scapegoat will do)  

for its shortcomings

I am the creator

of a love-to-hate museum

down your way,

harbouring all creativity’s

burning desire

to expose in this or that travesty

of humanity,

as good a reflection as any

of its shortcomings

Call me God, Devil or Fate as may be;

any answers lie at the heart of M-E

Copyright R. N. Taber 2011; 2020