NON AGE

WANT TO KNOW THE SECRET TO ETERNAL YOUTHFULNESS?

I typed "non age" for the title because I thought it looked like a more compelling title. The actual word is "nonage" —a lack of maturity, sort of being stuck in a state of youth-hood.

"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance." --Immanuel Kant

Or, as my mother would say, "If everyone was jumping off a building would you?"

I started to title this entry: "SAPERE AUDE!" But that seemed like a sure way to guarantee no one will read the first sentence and beyond. But don't click away yet. Sapere aude is a latin phrase translated: Dare to know! Or, "Have the courage to use your own understanding," which Kant called "the motto of the enlightenment."

A bunch of years ago now, around this time of year, it was "Senior Sunday" in the church where I was the youth minister. I stood in the vestibule with the seniors all lined up in their caps and gowns ready to march in and be recognized for their attainments. The first young lady in line wore the stole of the valedictorian. She said to me, "I've been meaning to ask you a question. What is it we're supposed to believe about (insert any moral ambiguity)?"

"You're the valedictorian!" I thought to myself. "And we've talked and talked about knowing who you are and what you know to be true and what values guide you."

Now, I sit here typing this and I realize that Sapere Aude is a life-long journey. Not only is it never-ending, we shouldn't wish for it to be. We should fall in love and stay in love with the beauty of discovery. As Peter Fenton says, "Be a learn-it-all; not a know-it-all." The worst thing we can do is abdicate our journey of discovery to others. Not that we can't learn from others, standing on their shoulders, but we must not settle or sell out to a "party line"; ANY party line without exploring it, testing it, and knowing it empirically.

The word Dare in the phrase Dare To Know is so appropriate because it can be risky business. It might mean standing on your own, seeing from a different perspective, disagreeing with even significant others. It might also mean you'll have to admit your were wrong about something, or that you JUST DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING.

[NOTE: What I write here at About Pops is mainly introspection. I'm not preaching to anyone (at least not intentionally). This is a personal journal with a little soapbox for ranting built in.]

Now, a little more from Kant's essay on enlightenment:

"Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why such a large part of mankind gladly remain minors all their lives, long after nature has freed them from external guidance. They are the reasons why it is so easy for others to set themselves up as guardians. It is so comfortable to be a minor. If I have a book that thinks for me, a pastor who acts as my conscience, a physician who prescribes my diet, and so on--then I have no need to exert myself. I have no need to think, if only I can pay; others will take care of that disagreeable business for me... Thus it is very difficult for the individual to work himself out of the nonage which has become almost second nature to him. He has even grown to like it, and is at first really incapable of using his own understanding because he has never been permitted to try it. Dogmas and formulas, these mechanical tools designed for reasonable use--or rather abuse--of his natural gifts, are the fetters of an everlasting nonage. The man who casts them off would make an uncertain leap over the narrowest ditch, because he is not used to such free movement. That is why there are only a few men who walk firmly, and who have emerged from nonage by cultivating their own minds."

An undeniable fact I'm discovering: that while I may be mired in nonage mentally, socially and spiritually; physically I'm marching on to the inevitable. Let's sing the last verse of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" together:

But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I've changed
Well something's lost, but something's gained
In living every day
I've looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all
I've looked at life from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

Not to misunderstand Joni or to question her life view, but this song does seem to reduce all to just two sides. Maybe she's acknowledging that tendency and also saying clearly life is not either/or; cut and dried.

Personally, I've been...
Republican and Democrat
Evangelist and Agnostic
Teacher and Student
Optimist and Pessimist
Liberal and Conservative
Happy and Angry
Pro Life and Pro Choice
Confused and Certain
Beautiful and Ugly
Hawk and Dove
Wishy and Washy
Pro and Con
Enlightened and sometimes living under a spell as if I had never had a thought, a belief or value of my own.

The truth is I've always lived in the gray in-between. That doesn't mean I have no certainty. I do. I tend to spend a lot of time in my own head. (Not recommending that.) And when I do, a question my self often gets asked by me is: Of what are you certain? Here's one:

Certainly moving to maturity and beyond nonage doesn't mean we forsake youthfulness. The innocent curiosity of that age is essential to the momentum, the enlightenment.

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the light surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.

[verse 2 of "Forever Young" by Bob Dylan]

And, then this from the Psalmist: "Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path."

Be enlightened my friends. That's the secret.