On a Clear Day

The desert wilderness that is the American Southwest stretches as far as the eye can see. Sand, a few mountaintops, and scattered small towns, mark the cloudless view from my window seat at six and a half miles above the earth. The strange symphony of iPod, laptop, and airliner, denotes progress and potential while the landscape below reminds us we are small. Even as we challenge—even conquer--limitations and create new ways of linking each of us to others, we need to remind ourselves that we walk in and out of the wilderness throughout our lives. The wilderness offers perspective. Timeless tales, of wandering and seeking, place the wilderness as a pathway to encounter with the ineffable.

The paradox of human destiny is that greatness comes from recognizing our place in the universe as we go from wilderness to lands of promise. Along the way we decide the existential choices that define us; true greatness can mean contracting rather than expanding. How will we use our skill, intelligence, and talents? Rich, poor, brilliant, dull, ordinary, exceptional, what ever our gifts or hardships, at some point we’ll face the wilderness whether literally or metaphorically.

So, this afternoon as we cross the desert between San Diego and Houston, the week old year is chronicled in the New York Times on my lap and the Newsweek I just placed in my briefcase. The current moment is rich with potential. New beginnings grounded in solving problems, and choosing well, put the wilderness in perspective. But the desert is there to remind us that the picture out the window remains rich, meaningful, and timeless, a more commanding view than our printed reports of world events. Wilderness diversions spawn creativity. We only need to pay attention.

All of this may seem trite, even naïve, in the face of wars, genocide, terror, and poverty. My answer is not to abandon or ignore conventional solutions to the problems that inflict pain and harm. But until we confront the spiritual dimension of our situation in ways that are more creative than in the past, no political, economic, military or cultural approach will be sufficient. So as not to be misunderstood, whether you are Jew, or Christian, Muslim, or Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, agnostic, or simply a seeker, the wilderness will find you. The point is to recognize the transformative power of the encounter and to not get stuck.