The Fulcrum

 

 

I have, probably like you, read and heard much of a notion called balance. Living in balance, being in balance... all things, people, situations, circumstances, consequences, in an equal portion of time, energy, focus, intention... blah blah.. for me it was always a concept, certainly not a real way of living.. a concept to use like a tool to see where the distracting, time-sucking, most likely not healthy spots in my life are/were. 

 

In the book by Dr. M. Scott Peck, The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace,  Scott Peck made the point that the truth always has a paradoxical quality to it. That deep truth is found in the both/and, in the paradox, in it. One side or the other offers you an easy answer... but not the whole truth. So for several years this understanding has been working in my thoughts... in the way I see things, shifting around ideas and keeping me from making some quick judgements and assumptions.

 

Now I will tell you, it's a terrible conversation to have with other people. I have never been able to provide much explanation of what I'm talking about. It's abstract. And seems to unhinge things and notions we thought we had nailed down. You may be better at it. Richard Rohr speak about thesis, antithesis, and synthesis... I think he was quoting someone else, but I heard in Rohr's  remarks the same concept of Fullness. Truth.

 

The Fullness of God.

Alpha and the Omega.

 Now and Not Yet.

Life and Death.

 

In the illusion of my own cleverness, I used to tell people that I was a 'walking dichotomy'. But I realize now it was a fool accidentally speaking Truth. (which amuses me too)

In me, and you too, dwells both light and dark. Both good and evil. We are both sinner and saint. We are both worthy and unworthy.

 

We are at all times, balanced, in the both/and.