The law of the land is like a tapestry where new items are added and some old ones deleted.
Values like fashions change. People change. Countries change. Change brings fear and tension. The greater good for all, as boring as that sounds, moves up and down the chart of priorities like the stock market.
Countries, religious institutions, and parts of our civil society may dismiss what is good for all for the sake of their own interests. Workers are expected to be loyal to the corporation they work for, to be team players, to show willing regardless of how comfortable they are with changes.
It is expected that we do not bring shame to our family, religious congregation, club or profession.
We are to achieve standards recognized as high by the tribe. But there is always the threat of failure: being homeless, alone, hated, cast out - even though you cannot control all circumstances no matter how much education or diligence you possess.
Competing demands take us beyond the law of verifiable existence, beyond what we have learned through our own experience or character. However we are caught in the doctrine of a capitalist system which emphasizes profit as the proof of success. Jobs and the economy are needed to buy food, clothing, and transport. And all this demands a proscribed appearance of "normal'.
Life looks like a series of battles to win, the need to be "seen" as powerful in a system invested in making you feel powerless. The greater good gets lost in the details.
We are trapped. How can we survive when all we depend on comes under the jurisdiction of other forces? How can we work for sixty hours a week and admit just how fragile we are? Even the unemployed and the poor are working hard to survive, to appear "normal".
Where do we get to actually live, to consult our heart and soul, when such concerns have already been dismissed as sentimental and our appetites unrealistic. When do we get to invest in building character rather than the self-improvement doctrines from other "experts".
Turning to the wisdom of ages through religion, science and history does not offer absolutes as they change with the centuries. The bible is a big book and covers all the contradictions imaginable: racism or agape, obedience or compassion, acceptance of poverty and suffering yet disdain for the poor and feeble, working for peace yet glorifying violence.
Returning to the Law of Verifiable Existence (LOVE) brings the law down to my level, to my emotional intelligence with the skills I possess and knowledge I have. I put myself on the table, in the street, at the hall and the voting polls. I take responsibility for what I consume. Cynicism and despair, criticism and sarcasm, are not the ultimate responses to this world in which I must dwell. The world is not out there - it is the hope for my grand-children, the support for theirs. The world is the ultimate theatre of my time and resources.
Winning and losing is a shallow measure of who I am and what my life is about. The GDP is simply the measure of a capitalist system. If the law does not have compassion or courage or morality, it is a living hell. The law and our constitution is the written agreement on how to love life.
LOVE is not just a personal and private relationship, it is the primary condition of our lives.
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