i believe in the question

this subject is profound, but also nonsensical. reminiscent, perhaps, of the play of the universe.* which is of course part of what makes life sacred.** the statement came from bill moyers, describing his religion / relationship to faith. i am in the final segment of the joseph campbell and bill moyers conversations on the power of myth. again, download and listen to it.**** it's fantastic. anyway, that line really spoke to me - i believe in the question! not only because i also believe in the question - i do - but also because i seem to often find myself talking about the importance of asking the right questions rather than having the right answers.

a little while later in that same conversation, joseph campbell tells a story that relates to the asking of questions. he is introduced to a catholic priest who is also a professor in a swimming pool. [please note i resisted all temptation to somehow turn this into a dirty priest joke. also, please note that this is simply the actual beginning of the story.] later on dry land, the priest asks j.c. whether he is also a priest. j.c. replies that he is not. he then asks whether he is a roman catholic. j.c. replies that he was. the priest then asks if he believes in a personal god. j.c. replies that he does not. the priest then asks whether he believes in the possibility of a personal god. j.c. replies with a question. saying, if i could answer that question, father, what would be the point of faith? the priest exits stage left. as j.c. (we're tight now, so it's ok to call him that. you can too.) considered this conversation, he noted that even in his very asking of the question about whether he believed in a personal god, the priest allows for the possibility that other kinds of gods / the sacred might exist. and so is it really the answer that provides us with solace, comfort, purpose? or the question. ahh, the power of the question.

but not all powerful and important questions are profound. take this one, for example, from xinhua. republished on the global times***** website. ladies and gentleman, drumroll please ... wait for it ... ahem - 'chinese vs foreign stars: who has most beautiful legs?' http://life.globaltimes.cn/entertainment/2010-08/562923.html. i stumbled across this gem quite by accident. but i couldn't help but laugh (1) because it's so ridiculous, (2) because xinhua is trying to be taken seriously in the media world, and (3) especially in light of (2) this was particularly amusing to me after just two weeks ago when an online xinhua story 'if hot stars were blackened' asked the all important question of what hot white stars would look like in blackface and posted pictures to show us all. a post from the china rises blog about this - http://blogs.mcclatchydc.com/china/2010/08/a-letter-to-xinhua-.html (and the link to a snapshot of the removed page - http://blogs.mcclatchydc.com/files/xinhua-copy-1.jpg). someone must have told xinhua that the blackface bit was offensive and not a fast ticket to being taken seriously, new offices in times square aside. thus far, the best legs piece is still there to stay, so please enjoy. and remember, it's not credible answers that count, but believing in the question.




*i once named a cat the sanskrit word which means 'the play of the universe' - leela. she was a lovely, sweet little kitty, but it was a bit too heavy a name for her. a lot to carry, really, if you're a small creature mainly concerned with maximizing opportunities for heavy petting and eating cheese. as that statement makes plain, leela and i were soul mates. she very tragically died an early and dramatic death, although her it wasn't the weight of her name that crushed her but a terrible and swiftly-moving blood disease. i was devastated. i had her cremated and buried her ashes in the garden at my parents' place. not far from clocean, actually. (still no linking, see post dated august 13, 2010 'on naming and spending' for an explanation of clocean, the modern art statute in the backyard.) i like to think of clocean watching over leela's spirit. then again leela - in the broader sense - is watching over us all. and smiling.

**an aside / a clarification: i am not a christian. at least not in any formal sense, although i think jesus had some good things to say and christianity has some nice (universal!) truths to consider. i say this because i recently received an email from someone who had read a recent post of mine in which he noted that he was not christian, but an atheist, so although he couldn't agree with my theology, he did subscribe to the wine-in-a-box school of spiritual growth. i wrote back explaining that i am not a christian and wondering what it was that i wrote that gave him that impression. i also noted that i was glad that at least we share the nirvana-lite-via-wine-in-a-box approach to life. otherwise the conversation may have needed to end there. speaking of conversations, i honestly don't really believe that people can be atheists. it is just entirely beyond the realm of something i can relate to or understand. this actually used to trouble little trouble a bit. he's allegedly an atheist (don't tell his family!). but i could never really accept or believe that. maybe what i can't believe is that people don't have a sense of the divine within them, that they can't feel the universal - god which we feebly call that for which there are no words - or experience themselves suspended as part of the whole. the whole being love, beauty, truth, everything. and also nothing. even if they only experience suggestions of these things in small, discreet moments. small, discreet corners of moments even. are there really people who have never experienced god? [i am using 'god' for the sake of convenience here. terrible, i know, because the word 'god' in this context is loaded and all wrong for what i'm talking about of course. but, SJ, this is a footnote and i need to wrap and tie soon and return to the primary narrative of this post which was meant to move me away from my hippy-dippy spirituality of late and return to simply smiling at life. or more precisely, life in china.] maybe there are such people. but i doubt it. in any case, i think i need to be more open-minded in this regard. telling atheists, 'i just don't believe you' isn't very kind. maybe i need to think of it in the same way i have come to accept that people can eat bananas in the afternoon or evening hours. to me, bananas are a breakfast fruit. this is part of my religious doctrine and i take it seriously. (i know it's a little weird, btw.) i just can't stomach the idea of (or literally stomach) bananas beyond breakfast. and i am always a little taken aback when i see people eating them in the late afternoon or evening.*** i honestly don't believe that deep down they also don't subscribe to my belief system and are feeling a little bit breakfast / cuckoo for cocoapuffs when eating them during the day. i know i am wrong about this. i really do. and so maybe i can see atheists in the same way i see afternoon banana-eaters. i will remain baffled, but can accept that somehow it works for them. very spiritually evolved of me.

***argh, footnoting a footnote again. poor form. but self-love. over it. this banana scripture of my mine is not without its challenges, especially when it comes to desserts and to plantains. on the former: i generally avoid banana-based desserts. when coerced into trying a bite of one, i am without fail disappointed. (and feeling a bit 7:30 am about it all.) when people are crazy enough to put banana in pavlova, i eat around it. on the latter: i sometimes try to see plantains and their ilk (plantain chips, e.g.) as non-bananas and therefore beyond breakfast. this rarely but occasionally works with very savoury-flavoured plantains. especially after a margarita or eight. i have sometimes found them to be very fine cross-over brunch fare. however, i also generally avoid them. [query: is this yet another reason i have absolutely zero interest in latin lovers and yet another sign that i was not meant to marry a latin man?] anyway, now that we've taken this nice little meander into meiling's neuroses, let's escape. look up.

****in another blogpost a friend fwded to me today, the writer extols her readers to take ambien and masturbate. i wonder if i would reach a wider audience if i encouraged people to do that. instead, i extol you all to listen to (or read) six hours of scintillating ruminations on faith, meaning, myth, ritual, heroes, goddesses, and love. it's worth it though. and afterwards you can masturbate and take ambien.

*****the global times is a sorry excuse of an english-language newspaper here in the motherland ostensibly to provide an independent voice on current affairs. it does not.