Last week I finished my comments on Ecclesiastes. That corresponded coincidentally with our packing up and heading again for a working hiatus in Oregon. After that we spent a day loading the van with all manner of art-making equipment . . . which in Anne’s case also means a heavy hand press, and in my case, many large canvases. Such as this limits our forays to road travel, as opposed to air, at least so far.

Once again we’ve come to Toledo, Oregon, a mill town just up the river from coastal Newport. Specifically, we’re in a restored and converted Justice of the Peace building of two floors, one room each. The lower is for “living” and the upper for “working” (though I continually get those two terms mixed up). Suffice to say the upstairs is studio space, the downstairs for sleeping, showering, eating, reading, writing, thinking, conversing, watching an evening movie and any pacing around wondering what to do.

This whole time is another blank slate.

On the way north we traveled the soulful 101 highway (well, not quite as soulful as the slow, coast-hugging Highway 1, but far more than the faster Freeway 5). We made stops. We overnighted in Palo Alto, visiting son Hyatt Jr. and family. He’ll finish his Stanford PhD this spring and is looking into working at Google. They’re pretty selective so there are no guarantees. It would mean his leaving sleep studies. Too bad, because he could apply those to me, but that’s another topic. One of the reasons he’s intrigued with Google is their policy of allotting 20 percent of the time of each employee to work on their own ideas.

It’s the kind of innovation that continues to catapult that organization into the unknown beyond.

And it’s reminiscent of what I just read about the 3M company, makers of Post-its and Scotch Tape and a thousand or so other products. Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing started out mining, but when that proved unproductive, they set their employees free to think up other ideas that might work. Now here they are, established with a century of succeeding and still innovating.

It’s all tribute to time for the human mind to go where it will.

And here we are again, at the beginning of three weeks of not 20 percent but more like 80 percent to do what we will.

And no clear ideas.

But, as Anne read to me just this morning out of a book on memory,* everything we think, interpret, remember and do is based on something else we’ve already thought, interpreted, remembered and done. So there’s always a fertile field. Though the destination is unknown, the starting place is always “from here.”

All this is to say that from here I can’t tell where this Blank Slate blog is going to go. Nor what the blank canvases are going to look like. I expect Anne (though already in the studio upstairs) is in the same boat. That boat is called, “State of Mind.”

All that is clear is where it has been; where it will go remains to be seen.

It’s good to have a few friends along for reporting back. Somehow talking about it helps clarify. So come along, and feel free to comment.

_______________
*   Moonwalking with Einstein, The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, Joshua Foer
** To see this same Oregon retreat we took last year, see Holy Toledo.

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Hi friends. Here we are at the end of Ecclesiastes. After most of a year and 77 posts, we arrive today at the ultimate climax.

Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.*

Easy: one precept. Remember that and you don’t have to remember anything else.

It’s like we have an invisible compass, dependable for all guidance. That’s pretty reassuring in the plethora of paths.

The only challenge is that the compass is invisible. It’s too easy to not check it, or think it must not be working.

Fear God. It’s not an expression we use much. Instead of “fear” we like to use a lighter touch, like “profound respect.” That works. But it lacks the ultimate weight of consequence.

That which we fear we generally stay away from. But in fact, the fear of an also benevolent God frees us from fear of anything else.

I scanned the headlines in today’s paper . . . full of accounts where no such fear exists. The stories are about the consequences.

There’s a telling account in the Old Testament where Abraham traveled to a country and sensed danger. His remark to himself was, “There is no fear of God in this place.”** He took measures, and those measures are part of his story. But that story is not my point, rather that a place where there is no fear of God is a dangerous place.

Why? Because there’s no sense of consequence.

What we tend to forget is “delayed consequence” is not the same as “no consequence.”

Here’s the rest of that final Ecclesiastes passage:

For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil. 

Happily, the commandments of God are not onerous. All are for our sake. Only in a few instances has he had to say, “Not that.” All else is ours for exploration, enjoyment, and free abandon.

And when we do blow it, he’s got a solution for that too, if we’ll take it.

Meantime, fear God. It’s very freeing.

____________________
*   Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
** Genesis 20:11

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Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.*

What college student hasn’t breathed this same sigh? The intriguing thing here is how early it was penned.

Exactly how many books were there way back then? It’s vague but though Hebrew was early for literacy, most of the world’s languages didn’t yet have an alphabet, let alone books. Even classical Greek was first coming into a literate form about the time this was written.

And of the few books that did exist, how big were their “editions,” each one laboriously hand copied?

Compare with today when the Library of Congress catalogues more than 32 million books and 61 million manuscripts in 470 languages!!

And that’s before Google came along and left those numbers in the dark ages dust!!!!!!

Still, all it takes is one book to bring on a great heaviness to the eyes and a weariness of body!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another intrigue about this Ecclesiastical comment is how it comes itself at the end of its own book. Is it the writer himself who is weary? Has he made many books? Has the compilation of this one completely worn him out? Maybe.

The book of Ecclesiastes is one of the most unusual assemblies of thought of all time. The topics are broad, the order random, the attitude negative at worst, skeptical as a rule, often cautionary, but now and then gloriously and enthusiastically positive about living life to the fullest. It’s a wide range and it’s author could have gone on and on with whatever came to his mind . . . for, as he said, there really in no end. But he finally said, “Enough.”

He quit because he was tired . . . and figured you must be too.

But he didn’t quit because there would ever be an end. That’s his point. There are always more thoughts, more ways to put them, and more people to say them to.

It’s like a painting. People often ask, “How do you know when you’re finished?” It can be hard to know. There’s always more that can be added. Where to stop is a matter of style, and intent . . . and fatigue. Finally you just abandon it!

You call it “finished,” and you go onto the next one.

The End, is only a temporary pause.

____________
*Ecclesiastes 12:12b

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There’s a truth we all experience, whether we’ve seen it just that way or not. It’s a basic concept in economics, the law of diminishing returns.

Take mining for example. You’re walking along and find a piece of gold lying on the ground. Wow. All luck, no work, 100 percent profit! You figure there’s gold in the area and start panning in the stream. Lots of work for lesser result. You figure there must be a vein underground. Much more work, and maybe now a crew of people. Pretty soon you’re forming a mining company and digging up a mountain. If it’s still working for you, great, but the profits keep spreading out to others and it’s a long ways from the early 100 percent.

Okay, you’ve never found any gold? How about your first car, or your first house? It was all joy, and all arrival. Now, cars and houses later, they’re still great, but what with maintenance and expenses and all manner of complications, the joy is not quite as pure.

A dentist friend of mine shared his business with his wife who has a talent for organizational development. While he was doing teeth, she built the place into a full-on clinic. In time he found himself coming into the office wondering, “What is this, Motor Vehicles? Who are all these people?”

It’s just like it says in Ecclesiastes:
As goods increase,
so do those who consume them.
And what benefit are they to the owner
except to feast his eyes on them?*

Not that feasting one’s eyes on something isn’t a reward of sorts. But one sees through that, too, and wonders if something’s been lost.

A client of a financial advisor friend of mine told him how he, the client, has reached such a state of success, all he has left to look forward to is his next steak dinner.

It’s hard to feel sorry for the guy, but it does seems it’s the law of diminishing returns taken to the extreme.

Here’s a Chinese proverb:
Even though you have ten thousand fields,
you can eat no more than one measure of rice a day.
Even though your dwelling contains a hundred rooms,
you can use but eight feet of space a night.

Best to keep things simple, and enjoy them 100 percent.

______________
*Ecclesiastes 5:11

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Be happy, young man, while you are young,

and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth.
Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see,
but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.*

I can just picture this scene, a gray haired old gentleman at table in a sidewalk cafe, acknowledging the carefree youth at the next table, smoking his cigarette, drinking whatever, and espousing his happy life of “devil may care.” I can picture it because it’s clear memory.

The old man, a retired architect of old world sensibilities was one I respected, and there was enough respect in return that he deigned to address some of my foibles. I tossed them off, of course.

He didn’t, but he could have espoused the whole passage quoted above: “Go ahead, do whatever you want . . . but know there are consequences.”

“But.” There’s that word, always messing up the freedom, negating the compliment, bringing things back to reality.

And so it is here in the ecclesiastical quote, a permission to live epicurean . . . with a careless zest like there’s no tomorrow.

But, it reminds, there is a tomorrow.

Thanks to a number of obstacles and pains, not to mention an invisible “guiding hand,” I got off that track and onto another destined to a better place.

It was not so, apparently, with my friend Steve.

I met Steve in 7th grade and he was my first bad influence. He was so clever, so impishly devious, I couldn’t help liking him. He needed better influences and I thought for awhile I could provide that. But (there’s that word again), it went the other way.

We spent years together as friends before drifting apart, both of us going onto worse.

But as I said, I changed tracks. Apparently he never did.

It was years later, like maybe 40, then serving as president of a large mission organization, I was asked to speak at a church some distance away. To the surprise of both of us, I ran into the sister of my old friend Steve. She was church secretary. I asked about her brother.

“We see him from time to time,” she said. “He lives in the next town, under a tree.”

“Under a tree?”

“Yes, he comes by sometimes, sometimes with one woman or another, usually needing money. He can be pleasant enough when he’s not strung out on something, but that’s not often.”

I never saw Steve, my visit was brief, but I’ve often reflected on his life, the road he was on and never got off of, and the destination it took him to.

He had fun when he was young, but he never saw, or listened to, the big but in the equation.

Every road leads somewhere. In the end, everything matters.

__________________
*Ecclesiastes 11:9-10

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As you do not know the path of the wind,
or how the body in formed in a mother’s womb,
so you cannot understand the work of God,
the Maker of all things.*

As I write these things Anne is in the kitchen cleaning out the freezer. Me, I’m doing the lofty things, contemplating God and the universe.

I’ve often been intrigued with the passage above. It’s right out of the Bible, the book that talks the most about knowing God. The point isn’t that we can’t know God, just that there’s infinitely more to know.

Any person or generation not ready to admit this is shortsighted at best, arrogant at worst. Or maybe it’s just “human.”

“God,” says an old hymn, “hides Himself in light.”

No wonder we can’t see Him. Or do we . . . in everything?

And what about the universe beyond . . . where we can barely see . . . or not at all?

Is God way out there and way in here too? Is He keeping the cosmos together and at the same time aware of (and concerned with) my little plans and worries?

If the wonders of nature weren’t enough to bowl us over, what about the not-just-imaginative speculations into parallel universes, quantum physics, chaos theory, and mathematically dividing infinity by infinity?

It’s real evidences of such phenomena that certain very bright minds among us are grappling with. And what about the mind itself? A complete mystery . . . not to mention the brain that carries it . . . an inner galaxy in gray mud that no one understands.

I suddenly recall the words of some modern mystic I read: “Lord, who are you? And for that matter, who am I?”

It’s all beyond knowing.

For now I think I’ll go help Anne clean out the freezer.

____________________
* Ecclesiastes 11:5

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Woe to you, O land whose king was a servant
and whose princes feast in the morning. 
Blessed are you, O land whose king is of noble birth 
and whose princes eat at a proper time–
for strength and not for drunkenness.* 

Interesting comment. Could summarize it with, “As go the leaders, so go their children, and so affected are everybody else.”

And who isn’t a leader in some capacity? And a follower in another.

A leader has some privilege, that’s a given; but better is the one who remembers why he’s there. Take the term, prime minister. Doesn’t “to minister” mean “to serve”? Doesn’t prime minister mean prime servant?

I’m reading a book entitled, Madmen of History,** a devastating account of some of the world’s notorious despots, every one of whom left their country in shambles, and sometimes large swaths of the world. The book delves into the person’s upbringing and family history. None came from a healthy family. And none knew anything about servanthood.

The whole “noble birth” notion versus “servant born” is something we might want to take issue with. Aren’t there examples in history where the low born rise to a very high place and deserve praise for both their ability and deportment? Yes, and we love them because they’re exceptions.

But the servant in the quote above, though now in power, is continually compensating, always needing validation, abusing privilege, flaunting, and forever lording over.

We’ve seen this. We may have suffered under it. Or are.

On the other hand, the leader with an unassuming natural confidence comes with little need to prove himself . . . and his followers will have much to thank for it.

So, to reword the quote:

All sympathy to you, O citizen, employee, child, (or fill-in-blank) whose king, boss, parent, (or fill-in-blank) behaves in ways that are self-defeating and irresponsible to the point of your bewilderment and hampering your growth and freedom.

At least recognize it for what it is . . . and do be careful that your own approach to leadership does not carry on the same curse.

Are you a leader?
It’s a role most needed.
You’re already on top, so put yourself under.
Be a prime minister indeed.

______________________
*   Ecclesiastes 10:16
** author, Donald D. Hook 

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I once won a bet of a lobster dinner that there was a verse in the Bible that said, “Money is the answer to everything.” It just seems so out of place, more like the title of a self-help book for the would-be-rich. My friend took me up on the bet . . . and later treated me to a lobster dinner!

The verse is in Ecclesiastes (of course) and I must confess I was just as surprised as my lobster cooking friend when I first came across it.

But isn’t the Bible the book that says, “Money is the root of all evil”?

No. Look again. The full quote is the love of money is the root of all evil.**

Money itself is just a fact of life, something necessary for living, and almost always the solution when a lack of it is the problem.

Here’s the text:

A feast is made for laughter,
and wine makes life merry,
but money is the answer for everything.*

Everything has a use. The purpose of a feast is to lighten the heart. The purpose of wine, similar. But the purpose of money is to buy the food, buy the wine, rent the space, provide the cutlery, the plates, the service, the glasses, the candles, the music, the decorations, pay the staff, tip the help, send invitations, dress for the occasion, and all the other details for which if there is no money, nothing happens.

Money is almost always the solution when the problem is its lack.

You knew this all along; you just didn’t know it was in the Bible.

It was in early adulthood I formed a simple philosophy about money and its preoccupation. I said:
“I hate to worry about money;
and the best way not to worry about money . . .
is to have enough!”

Of course, “enough” can be a sliding scale and be ever elusive, but that’s a problem of a different nature.

Enough is what you need; and when you don’t have it you do something about it. That’s where wisdom comes in, and work, and a combination of many things all starting with a decision.

But with enough, you need not always strive, and need not ever worry.

It’s the one who has too little money who is perennially preoccupied with it. Having enough is an answer for that too.

And an occasional lobster dinner.

____________________

*    Ecclesiastes 10:19
** 1 Timothy 6:10

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Still in the January, looking back, looking forward mode, here’s a painting and a poem fitting for the season. The painting was made before the poem, without any “message” in mind. It’s one of a few painted in similar fashion, all still in San Francisco with Lisa Hoyt Art and Design. The poem came later . . . as I was sitting in the back of a room full of creative types in Colorado Springs waiting to be introduced as their weekend speaker. I had the painting with me and ended up featuring it, reading the poem several times over the two days as it became “theme” for our time together. In all, it became evident, at least to me, that it’s only in looking back that we see most clearly. And even then, there’s filter, always a personal perspective. Still, it’s from looking back that we get our best hint of the future.

Enjoy the painting, and the poem.

Boat Rower,
oil on canvas,
36×48

Rowing into Time

Working some
Sometimes hard
Resting between pulls
Sometimes gliding
Moving forward
Looking backward
Seeing . . . no, sensing . . . where I’m going
by where I’ve been.

The occasional over-the-shoulder glance
is all I get about what might be coming.

Meanwhile the rearward view
is satisfying,
always growing . . .
And if I really look,
always beautiful.

But I wonder . . .
For all my fatigue and planning
Is it me doing the work
Or is it the river?

____________
Next: Back to Ecclesiastes–Money, the Answer to Everything

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Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit,
for anger resides in the lap of fools.*

You feel anger coming on? Quick, stand up, walk around . . .
the lap disappears, and maybe the lap of a fool.

I don’t know when I’ve let my anger fly that I’ve not felt pretty apish after.

Funny, it’s feels so justified at the time. Almost intoxicating. But like with too much wine, it just looks like a lack of control.

Actually though, habitual anger is a form of control . . . of others. Conscious or not, its threat is used to keep others in line. That’s not to say it doesn’t work.

It wrecks.

Havoc.

Not that there’s never a time for it. It is a valid emotion. I like what the Word allows, Be angry and sin not.** That provides some leeway, and gives a better result.

“The greatest remedy for anger,” said Seneca, “is delay.”

Anger churns in the stomach by day
and at night keeps sleep at bay.

(I said that.)

For all this, though, there is an instance when anger is useful . . . and its strength channeled for good. That’s when I say to myself: “I’m fed up with this way of living (what I’m doing, how I’m thinking) and I’m not going to live this way any more!” Such emotional resolve can change the whole life for the better.

But, caution: That’s only when directed toward the self, not toward another.

Here’s the key–
Keep holstered the anger pistol;
practice how slow you can draw.

Even then, be warned:
You could put a hole in your craw.

_________________

*  Ecclesiastes 7:9
**Ephesians 4:26

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