The Promised Land Project: In the Realm of the Prophets: Love Flourishing Best in the Bed of Freedom

Turning Vision into Action....at least hypothetically

Strike up the music of the band
We're blazing a trail for the promised land
Heaven on earth is within you.

Through the writing of stories, poetry, essays, and a novel, I’ve creatively contended with the consumer culture and the problem of the ideal in the modern era. This preoccupation in time would lead to a vision of cultural transformation and where I believe our democratic society needs to go to truly progress beyond the modern era. Conceding my limited credibility, this blog provides a synthesis of recognized visionaries, poets, and writers with the objective of making a credible argument. Ultimately, it is a certain feeling the project strives to inspire and sustain on a certain level, making more vital use of poetry and the arts; consequently whether one agrees or not is less important than whether one senses it and feels it over time.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

In the Realm of the Prophets: Love Flourishing Best in the Bed of Freedom

The previous blog may suggest that some day we'll do away with the didactic and religion in general and bask in the feeling of love. Maybe some day but I'm skeptical. Religion and the didactic, or religous doctrine, can be imbued with deep wisdom that the contemporary mindset can fail to appreciate. Yet it's also true that religious doctrine can also be stuck in the past and impair true progress. Cultures, including religion, evolve over time.

In the wake of the 1960's, we should recognize that feelings of 'love' can degenerate into the afflictions of the self. What feels like love and what truly is love can be quite different, especially regarding sexual or 'romantic' love; and here religious doctrine can help guide us. True love, as it appears to me, is the denial of the individual self to attain a greater collective, or spiritual, experience.

We're on the trail of the poetic genius because of its reflection on the course of human evolution. The writings of D.H. Lawrence would necessarily break moral taboos to advance the realization of the spiritual aspects of the body. Yet it also must be said that his writings, such as the novel Lady Chatterley's Lover) would help sow the seeds of the sexual revolution and the rise of casual sex, which can be dispiriting toward the body, and contribute to other social ills: the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, the breakdown of the family social unit, childhood poverty, hurt feelings, etc.

The sexual revolution, I believe, is an example of human evolution that probably would've inevitably occurred in the human drive toward freedom. Through the experience, however, we can better appreciate the sacred rite of marriage. Yet if the marriage is mere convention or coerced, such as through intimidation or threat of shaming or social ostracism, it can detract from the realization of the greater spiritual aspects that can be discovered in the marital unit. To my view, attaining a deep level of intimacy may only come through a corresponding deep level of committment, and that love flourishes best when given freely.