Way of the World - John Herlihy - Bog

This collection of essays resemble members of a family in which the children have all been adopted. They may not necessarily be related by blood; but they are related in terms of thematic content and by their intrinsic soul and spirit. While the title of the book evokes the multiple ways of the world, the reference in the sub-title specifies the human condition as both the foundation and ground upon which the human edifice is built. We open with in-depth speculation about the nature of destiny's promises. The meaning of the word "destiny" may not be elusive; but its practical application within our lives is questionable and ever present. We may or may not believe in individual fate or destiny, but we cannot escape the fact that there is an overlay of destiny in our lives that we wear as a winter cloak. Early on in the first chapter, I write that "If we try to examine the idea of destiny in all its aspects, we quickly realize that it slips through our fingers like silk cloth, shimmering with the light of insight before it vanishes like mist once again as a mystery whose window has disappeared." Only one thing seems to be certain, namely that our destiny enters our lives slowly, one drop at a time, recalling Abraham Lincoln's famous remark: "The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time."I have devoted several chapters to the idea of the spiritual compass. We are all familiar with the four corners of the earth reaching from north to south, from east to west. We have relied on the physical compass down through the ages to make journeys into the unknown, we pursue our determined way to any number of destinations, or simply to find our way in the world. However, the notion of the spiritual compass has eluded our comprehension and grasp, particularly in this day and age. "Contrary to the magnetic compass of the earth, the symbolic image of the sacred compass provides a meaning of greater universal background and offers the astute seeker after truth a series of transparent landmarks that move beyond the immediate, earthly horizon, beyond even the great expanse of space and time, in order to enter a realm that is so preternatural, mysterious and profound that we must rely on the language of symbolism, of myth, or metaphor, indeed we must build upon the language of geometry even, in order to articulate the intangible phantoms of this spiritual and otherworldly reality." The spiritual compass comprises none other than our origins, our source, our center and our final end. This is none other than the spiritual compass of which I write.We close our collection of essays with some reflections on the way of the world. We live in our world today without fully understanding it, and without fully coming to terms with its inscrutable and mysterious ways. There is a secret to the world that we have yet to fathom and it will not be found by trying to dissect its physical properties down to the quantum level of existence. The true nature of our world lies far beyond any physical description of how it came into being and how it turns on its axis within the vast cosmos as if on a dime. We live in a world within multiple worlds, not the least of which being the inner world of the human condition. A secret indeed, but once discover opens onto a world of limitless possibilities that we could never before have imagined on our own. Therein lies the opportunity and the challenge.