Moving Beyond: Seeing Both-And

Have you noticed when you travel -- on foot; by car, train, boat, or plane -- that it is almost impossible to hold specific details and broad plans in focus at the same moment?  For instance, when flying, we can look down and see specifics in the landscape and countryside.

Have you noticed the patchwork below your plane?

But when we look at the horizon, the boundaries that we have seen seem to melt away: our attention moves beyond, to new vistas and clouds.  Looking down again, the patchwork comes back into focus.  The same is true when walking or running:  looking down to gain secure footing and yet raising our eyes and attention to the beauty surrounding us.

Can we hold the patchwork at the same time as we see the whole?

Dualistic thinking has always fascinated me!  It is as if Western thinking has narrowed our perspectives to Either-Or, Good-Bad, Right-Wrong, Cops-and-Robbers...  I am sure you can add to this list!

I wonder what would happen if we exercised our Worldview-Muscles to extend beyond, to hold more truths lightly at a single time.  As humans, do we have the capacity to see Both-And in more situations?  I believe the answer is "Yes!"

Shifting our perspective to see more detail... and beyond.

Karl Rahner, one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century, understood the human person as comprised of two poles of Human Awareness:

• Our Objective Self: our busy, every day mind that seeks out details and understanding; that focuses on categorizing, filing, and describing.
• Our Subjective Self: our essential self that seeks out transcendent freedom; the awareness beyond, seeking out mystery and the True Self.

Each of us may experience both of these poles throughout our day in varying degrees.

Oftentimes, our culture  works predominantly in the Objective pole.  Some of us may even feel more comfortable in this pole as we navigate the world: narrowing down and defining our perceptions of another person; focusing on historical events to define the reality that seems so clear to us.

Karl Rahner has reminded us, though, that we also have a Subjective pole that searches for more.  This is the realm of Self- and Collective-awareness, those choices that go beyond how we define or limit.

Experiencing Both-And (Nasa photo: Earth and Moon)

In Rahner's words:  "How often I have found that we grow to maturity not by doing what we like, but by doing what we should.  How true it is that not every 'should' is a compulsion, and not every 'like' is a High Morality and True Freedom." 

The challenge I hear through both Rahner and Dialogue is to embrace both the Subjective and Objective poles.  That is, to notice the pole we are most comfortable, that gives us secure footing, and move beyond, seeking out the pole that raises our attention to a beauty beyond what we have been experiencing or imagining.

Our focus this week may be contained in a quote from Henri de Lubac:   "Habit and routine have an unbelievable power to waste and destroy."

Questions we may want to consider:

• Which pole makes me feel more comfortable?
• How might I seek out and exercise the other pole this week?
• In what ways may I move into a Both-And relationship, allowing both the Objective and Subjective poles to complement and enliven who I am?
• What possibilities do we envision?  What options do we choose? 

May habit and routine not waste or destroy this newborn week!
 

Larry Gardepie