On This Day - January 22nd

On this day in the year 1506 of the common era (CE), the first contingent of Swiss Guards, one hundred-fifty men-at-arms, arrives at the Vatican to begin their centuries long tradition of service as the private security of the pope, the bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church; three hundred and thirty six years later, author Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine arrive in Boston, Massachusetts.

On this day in the year 1877 CE, Anglican clergyman Arthur Tooth is taken into custody after being prosecuted for using ritualist practices; thirty-one years later Katie Mulcahey is taken into custody for lighting a cigarette in violation of the one-day-old "Sullivan Ordinance" banning women from smoking in public. She says to tells the judge, “I’ve got as much right to smoke as you;” he fines her five dollars.

On this day in 1951 CE. Fidel Castro, suiting up with the Washington Senators, is ejected from a Winter League baseball game after intentionally hitting a batter, bringing his prospects as a major league baseball player to an end, allowing him to devote the rest of his life to the Cuban Revolution and politics; eight years later Buddy Holly makes his last recordings in his NYC apartment including "Peggy Sue" and "Crying, Waiting, Hoping", which were embellished, overdubbed, and released posthumously by Coral Records.

In 1973 CE, the United States Supreme Court legalizes most abortions through its opinion in the case Roe v. Wade. Writing for majority, Justice Harry Blackmun states that the criminalization of abortion does not have "roots in the English common law tradition."

 

 

Ursula K. Le Guin – Author, Hero, Sage

It has been eight years since the sage was translated from this life into the world beyond…she was and remains a hero of mine.

The first book of hers I ever read was a novella titled: The Lathe of Heaven. The genre was science-fiction, but the book was much more; in her slim masterpiece the author spoke to me about the nature of reality, the function of consciousness and most importantly what it means to be human.

She took the title for this book from the writings of the Taoist, Chuang Tzu (book 23, paragraph 7), which says:

 

~ To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do so will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven ~

 

Her book dramatized this sentiment while recapitulating its warning, the consideration of which took me outside of myself and allowed me to see the world…the whole of it, in an entirely new way.

I was fifteen years old at the time, and without realizing it, through Le Guin’s writing, I had been introduced to Taoism (the esoteric tradition) of Lao Tzu, which provided me with a perspective that would subsequently shape the future-history of my life.

Some years later, when I was in the Navy, I found comfort in the Earthsea Chronicles, a series of four novellas in the fantasy genre, complete with wizards and dragons; in book one of this series: A Wizard of Earthsea, she introduces a hero named Sparrowhawk, whose greatest enemy is himself, which forces him to address the existential dilemma expressed in the question:

How do we live with ourselves?

For better or worse, in sickness and in health…how do we do it?

To be clear, Sparrowhawk’s enemy is not exactly himself, rather it is the shadow of the specter of guilt which he carries, a shadow that most if not all human beings carry throughout their lives, shame and guilt which we nurture insofar as we are unable to ask for, and accept forgiveness for the things we have done to hurt or harm those near to us.

The Earthsea Chronicles are written in a simple narrative structure with clear and unpretentiousness prose, and they are so brief that they are more akin to fairy tales than epics and sagas, they can be read to children (which is why I found them comforting…I think). Yet, Ursula Le Guin’s writing is so masterful that sophisticated readers may also find them engaging. They communicate a depth of insight into the human condition that lies just below the surface of the narrative…just as it does beneath the surface of our own minds.

If we liken civilization to a garden, we would have to admit that it is unkempt and wild, and long under shadow; the fruit of our progress has been wilting on the vine, fellowship and common purpose have suffered accordingly. Such themes of discontent are the ideas that she explores in her collection on the Hainish cycle, beginning with the fifth book in the series, The Dispossessed.

Read it!

Eight years ago this luminary departed planet earth, leaving a legacy of literature to light the way for us...and, we need this light more than ever.

We need heroes and teachers like Ursula K. Le Guin, we need them to light the way for us, to guide us into the cloud of unknowing…I miss her.