Like all great storytellers, Rudyard Kipling knew how to turn a phrase. He spun tales for children that would hold the attention of any adult. In How the Whale Got His Throat a small ‘Stute Fish advises an unsuspecting hungry cetacean where to find a solitary shipwrecked mariner adrift on a raft. The fish has one small caveat. “It is only fair to tell you,” he says, that the mariner is “a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity.”
None of his listening children would ask Kipling to wait while they find the dictionary definitions of resourcefulness and sagacity. They know instinctively that these are good characteristics. Mariners on the wild seven seas must be resourceful to survive. It is a physical realm of constant, unpredictable change. They adapt. They use the tools on hand and work together. Experience makes them sagacious—able to choose wisely among their rapidly evolving options for handling the ship.
Even if wrecked, wiley mariners often survive using these traits. Odysseus had even fewer resources than Kipling’s mariner when he clung to the detached keel of his storm-battered ship. Homer tells us, however, that Odysseus enjoyed the favor of several Greek gods. In some stories, infinite-resource-and-sagacity may not always suffice. Luck and blessings from on high may also come into play. The mariner may also be spiritual and seek communion with whatever powers undergird the chaotic physical world.
What spiritual characteristics would children also instinctively recognize as admirable for survival in the endless uncertainty of our lives? Many of us ask the existential questions: Who am I? Why am I here? Where do I come from? And where am I going?
Just as the mariners gain sagacity through years of experience, so it goes with spiritual insight. Young children believe what they are told without question. Teenagers and young adults tend toward black-and-white thinking. We judge who to trust and often accept portrayals as unquestioned truth.
Some people age but retain black-and-white thinking, especially if they belong to a community that mandates a given point of view. Uncertainty is scary. Walled castles of thought, with moats and ramparts, provide a sense of safety. Another great storyteller, Victor Hugo, succinctly illustrates the difference. In describing Quasimodo, the hunchback, and Frollo, the caring priest, Hugo says, “In 1482, Quasimodo was about twenty years old, and Claude Frollo about thirty-six. The one had grown up; the other had aged.”
Children listening to a story about a spiritual person might also instinctively know which characteristics are good and which are not. For example, fearlessness, poise, grace, and calm bearing might stand out to them. Confronted with difficult, rapidly changing circumstances, the hero remains brave and succeeds. For a spiritual person, what appears as self-confidence may be a trust in their acquired sagacity, the wisdom to deal with whatever comes up. Rather than a chaotic ocean surface, however, spiritual matters often involve relationships between people. Experience leads to trust in the spiritual tenets of kindness and respect. This sagacity is not due to unassailable knowledge and ability to foretell the future. Their former black-and-white thinking has come to accommodate an enormous amount of gray. Uncertainty may be uncomfortable, but they have learned not to fear it.
If we accept more gray as we age, how and why does this transformation occur? Merely getting older does not confer wisdom. We must be curious people. We must pay attention. As I said in a previous post, a genuinely spiritual person must care to investigate possibilities. We have an innate desire for union with the divine, or the creative force behind all things. In this search, however, we must retain humility and live with uncertainty.
We all form hypotheses about the physical world and the possibility of spiritual underpinnings. Our “working” hypotheses are those we presently find most convincing and use to guide our lives. The wise spiritual person knows these hypotheses remain our best guesses, whereas a naïve person mistakes them for pure reality.
Consider that humans think almost entirely in metaphors. (If this concept is new, jot it down and investigate for yourself.) The Greek etymology is a bridge that transfers meaning across a void. By definition, metaphor is bilateral, facilitating understanding between two people or between a person and themselves. Even the word metaphor is metaphorical! We can expand the one-dimensional idea into two dimensions by considering how maps function.
Maps attempt to portray certain aspects of reality while leaving others untouched. No single map can display everything. Transportation maps specialize in roadways. Geologic maps show the geographic layout of rock and soil types. An anatomical map shows aspects of bodies, with bones, arteries, muscles, or organs. Bodies are so complicated that many anatomical maps are needed.
We have considered the one-dimensional metaphor and the two-dimensional map. What about three dimensions or more? A start would be to handle more than one metaphor or map. Of course, all humans can do this. But sometimes, we fall into the trap of denying the validity of other’s maps or metaphors. When we think our metaphors are reasonable, we tend to believe other people’s metaphors are in error. A much better approach is to consider utility or convenience. Which metaphor is more useful?
We attain the third dimension, bridging the gap between ourselves and reality, by accepting multiple maps and metaphors and knowing when and how to use them. By considering how others portray things, not dismissing them but considering them, we begin to sense the third dimension.
Spiritual wisdom or sagacity grows as we become adept at handling these alternate ways of seeing. We welcome new ideas, but at the same time, we gain the discernment to judge their usefulness. We must retain humility with new ideas, but debating their value with ourselves and others is a significant and worthwhile task.
A French polymath from the turn of the 20th century can supply great insight here. Henri Poincaré was a mathematician with a philosophical bent. He contended that the scientific method has significant non-rational or emotional aspects. With creativity, scientists consider numerous hypotheses about the physical materials they study and the effects they observe. Hypotheses are tentative guesses about what might be happening, as well as causes and effects. Poincaré pointed out that scores of hypotheses can be posited, but good scientists know instinctively how to weed through them. They choose the fertile ones for further investigation. The choices are not always purely rational. Success in science comes from having chosen the most valuable and applicable hypotheses that are also borne out under evaluation.
The history of science shows, however, that sometimes hypotheses dismissed as worthless turn out to be better than those previously accepted. Scientists have excellent discernment skills but must remain humble and acknowledge inevitable uncertainty.
As a side note, two more recent books tackle questions of the vital role of emotion in successfully navigating our environment. Check out Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin and Descartes’ Error by Antonio Damásio. The latter can get very medical but remains readable and references Poincaré.
Spiritually wise people have similar creative skills to those of the best scientists. They are not afraid of foreign ways of thinking. They also acknowledge uncertainty, even while they try to sift through all possible spiritual hypotheses and select the most fertile ones. They can consider more than one angle simultaneously.
Sadly, many people today shy away from discussing important matters, such as their spirituality. They don’t want to set off arguments and receive criticism. Everyone’s spiritual journey is their own. They may hide it, but nobody believes precisely what they are told to think by spiritual authorities. We should find safe spaces to discuss ideas and compare hypotheses. We should listen to people’s metaphors and see if meaning is transferred across the chasm. We should compare maps and see if we can get glimpses of our three-dimensional reality.
Sometimes, Christians are afraid to consider what other religions have to say. They seem to think God will punish them or that they will be corrupted. Treat others, young people, or those who still cannot accommodate gray with kindness and respect. If they know “the righteous shall live by faith,” encourage them to trust the Spirit and not lean entirely on their limited understanding (or that of authorities in their community). Challenge them to embrace uncertainty and to use the creative minds and hearts they were born with.