I love to play golf. Yesterday was a beautiful day here in Central Indiana and I took the opportunity to enjoy myself on the links. I was teamed up with Jack, a fine fellow from Oklahoma. Jack owns his own company and as we shared stories he told me that although his company is quite successful except for the first 18 months of its existence he has not been ‘happy’ at work. Later on as I was reflecting on his story I began to wonder what ‘burning questions’ might serve Jack. Since I am searching, seeking and musing about this today I thought I might as well write a few words about what is emerging for me.
Many of us are familiar with the ‘search for the Holy Grail’ story. What we are not as familiar with is the knight who was called to this search – Parsifal. One of the challenges he faced along his search was the challenge of asking ‘the right question.’ Not any question, but the ‘right question,’ the ‘burning question,’ if you will. He did not have to find the answer, he just had to ask the question; he had to ‘hold the question’ or as the poet Rilke offered us, ‘he had to live the question itself.’ Oh, the question: Whom does the Grail serve?
My current belief is that life stories, like all good stories, have at their core a central question and if we can discern the question and begin to understand its meaning in our lives – like Parsifal we don’t have to find the answer – our lives, our life-stories, will be enhanced. The English poet Abraham Cowley reminds us that ‘curiosity, no less than devotion, makes pilgrims.’ Part of being fully human is to be a bearer of questions – questions from a deep place of not knowing; questions that are essential to our life. Emerging, or is it discerning, and then framing these questions is integral to our journey and story.
What question is at the heart and soul of our pilgrimage, our life? What question were we put here to understand and then to live? This is a burning question that arises from a crying need (sometimes a literal crying need) – an existential thirst. We may, for example, have questions about a call we seek: What is my purpose? To whom do I belong? What can I deeply believe in? Who are my teachers? What is the name of the ‘ghost’ that haunts me into awareness? How can I use my talents? How can I serve the world?
We might have questions about ‘calls’ we’ve received: How do I learn to forgive? How do I learn to love? How do I co-create community with you? How can healing and laughter be combined? How can conservatives and progressives work together for the common good? How can I raise my children so they are more compassionate?
How would our lives be different if we were motivated, if not propelled, by the question: How can I serve others so as a result they grow as persons?
I cherish Annie Dillard’s writings and she once wrote that the way we spend our days is the way we spend our lives. Part of this ‘depending’ rests with the questions we ask. Each morning, during my period of meditation, I ask: How can I love today? Depending upon which word I emphasize on a given day the question takes on different meanings for me: HOW, CAN, I, LOVE, TODAY. Today the emphasis was on can – as in ‘Can I love, today?’ How about you, gentle reader, what one burning question might you hold for today?
Searcher-Seeker 