Dark Edges

The theme for today is "Dark Edges"

It's spring time now, where we live
light is returning, days are warming
and things are coming back to life.
It's a relief, after the dark cold days of winter.

I hope we all find ways to soak it in,
to absorb the "new normal" of warmth and opening.

We may feel enlarged,
a greater dynamic range of experience,
of feelings, colors, temperatures.

We can use this support of nature
and this openness and distance
to explore or play with its complementaries.

Life has difficult and chaotic aspects
Much as our cultural myths of progress and enlightenment
tempt us to believe that everything can be dealt with
if brought into the light of reason.

or our counter-cultural myths of detachment and acceptance, too, I suppose

These are off-the-map areas:
by their nature
not already simplified and systematized.

So we're permitted to ramble,
to tell stories,
to do things in indirect and confusing ways.

Which might be a way to not "manipulate" ... ?

Every life, it seems
has dark corners within it
and a dark periphery "outside" it.

This holds for individuals
and for families, groups, and larger communities
including, perhaps, our species.

Could we just ignore the dark edges and corners?
It seems this isn't a good idea:
when we stay in the comfort zone
and don't explore the edges
the unknown and dark aspect seems to slowly grow
and the circle of light contract.

In ancient times people explored the world
and made maps to guide other explorers.
At the edge of the map was the unknown
and the map-maker might place a colorful illustration:
"Dragon's be here".

I learned to write instructions for a computer
in simpler days.
It was a revelation to learn
there was a language to cause the computer
to do whatever I said.  What a power to have!

What if I tell it things that don't make sense?
Can I cause it damage?
"Don't worry!"  the instructors said.
"It's activity might be meaningless, but harmless".

Later I learned it was entirely possible
to write instructions
that would "crash" the system:
A state in which the computer needed extra help
to get started again.
 
It stopped listening.
You had to go to where it was physically
and push a button to make it re-start.

Some other people learned this
and they tried it, and that disturbed other people
who might become angry at them.

So they figured out a clever trick:
To make a program that said
"Don't run me"
and leave it around for OTHER people to run.

And this reminded me of family lessons I'd learned earlier:
a child learns how to "crash" the family system.
And then learns it's usually not a good idea

and feels a sense of fascination and dread when it happens,
the beginning of a more complex personality
that both likes and doesn't like the potentials
of bigger worlds they are part of,
whether it's a relationship like a marriage
or a community.

Some people are compelled to make trouble,
whether in the communities of the digital world
or in "real" life.

I don't pretend to understand their motivations.

Sometimes people "get into trouble" in one way
to get out of trouble in another.

Perhaps its a way of demonstrating to oneself
The ability to master disturbing things.
"See, I can function in these dark places
even when other people can't.
That proves I am strong"

Perhaps it's a form of the ancient myth
of the Hero who goes beyond the dark edge
and returns stronger, and with stories to tell.

The power of authors to tell a story
is a refined, cultured version of this power
of coming to terms with edges of our knowledge and power.

How disturbing ought a story to be?
Little kids love a story with dark elements
as long as things turn out well in the end

and it was just imaginary:
the reality was they were safe all along
in the secure setting of the adults' world.

Adults too love stories
tragedies, dramas;
the real-life stories called "the news"
are not of interest mainly for their factual content.

Whatever DID happen to that missing airplane?

If you are fortunate
you may be a member of a group of adults
who collectively tell stories
many of which are beyond you
and can open you to imagining
how to see and how to act
in areas that are currently unknown.

Non-western traditions have other myths and figures
about what happens at those edges.
Some make it clear
that you are there as a learner or traveler.

There's a creature called a Guardian
who stands at the edge of a dangerous zone
if you are not ready to pass through the gate to that zone
the Guardian will test you,
and this may hurt,
but not nearly as much as what would happen
if you go through unprepared:
in this sense the Guardian is looking out for your safety.

And for the dignity of what's on the other side

Poets and storytellers
also help remind us
that the dark, the unknown,
and also, interestingly, the seemingly useless

are repositories of values
not already exploited by our systems and egos
that may hold buried gold or lost treasures.

The journey "off the map" is often a personal one
beset by uncertainty

spurred on by curiosity
or restlessness
or some un-asked-for necessity

The poet David Whyte
expresses some of this in his poem

The Winter of Listening

All this petty worry
while the great cloak
of the sky grows dark
and intense
round every living thing.

What is precious
inside us does not
care to be known
by the mind
in ways that diminish
its presence.

What we strive for
in perfection
is not what turns us
into the lit angel
we desire,

what disturbs
and then nourishes
has everything
we need.

What we hate
in ourselves
is what we cannot know
in ourselves but
what is true to the pattern
does not need
to be explained.

Inside everyone
is a great shout of joy
waiting to be born.

Stories like this
bring an encounter,
a live experience,

not an explanation.

Stories contain, or array us in relation to
the dark edges of uncertainty:
Answers finish things.

A story is alive, as long as it's not finished.

What are some of YOUR living stories?

Ones that are new,
ones that are old and familiar and still alive;
ones that are interesting to other people
but you're not really sure about?

Especially ones that show their life
by not making sense,

where it is you that stand
at the fertile or disturbing gap
of being the Sense Seeker
or the Sense Maker?