July 30, 2007

Challenging Your Belief System:
Galileo, Copernicus and Christopher Columbus

I was thinking about belief systems today: those things that keep us in check, that make us follow the rules, that have us thinking we might be doing something wrong, or right...that we might not be "conforming" to the rules of "society."

Belief systems are exactly that: a system, or way of learning, that we have been taught to believe. Were you an Irish Protestant growing up in Belfast during the years of the "troubles?" My husband was and he learned that many of the kids from "the other side" as they were called, believed that Catholics were descended from the devil: that they were evil: that they were not smart: that they were to be feared. These kids learned this from their parents, who learned it from their parents, and so it goes....Thankfully my husband was able to immigrate to Canada with his family before he turned 14 and was able to stay away from the personal conflicts. Thankfully he had a mother who knew that people had hearts and souls and were not really intending on being mean spirited. Thankfully she was a wise and kind woman: I say thankfully because she taught her family well. My husband married me and I'm "from the other side" so to speak. We've been married 28 years and dated for 4 so s! he must have been right. Criag Keilburger, of Free The Children, wrote a great story in the Toronto Star on Monday July 30 about a Catholic boy who was blinded by a Protestant soldier in Derry many years ago. These two men recently met and both realized that they had been in a situation of "beliefs" of the day. They held no ill feelings toward one another and, remarkably, they stay in contact. Talk about overcoming a belief system...

I read about Galileo today. Brilliant man born in Italy in 1564. His dad was a musician but he wanted his son to be a doctor so he shipped him off to Pisa to study. And study he did. This was the man who studied pendulums and created the first pendulum clock. This was the man who proved, by dropping things off the tower of Pisa, (how cool is that?) that the weight or density of an object did not affect it's rate of fall and that all objects drop at the same rate (when air resistance is not an issue,) thereby proving that yes, a feather and a rock do both fall at the same rate... Galileo was interested in the work of Copernicus who had suggested that the Earth and other planets revolved around the sun. This was not the belief of the time and to proclaim so was to be considered a heretic. This was a charge worthy of death. Galileo invented the telescope and was able to prove that Jupiter had more than one moon, some of the features on the moon and Venus: such events verified the testimony of Copernicus. The Catholic church was so outraged that this man would try to disprove their beliefs that they charged Galileo with heresy and offered him a deal. If he said his discoveries were merely a "theory" he would not be charged. Galileo, choosing to follow what he knew was truth, did not accept this deal and was ordered to spend the remainder of his life in exile.

Galileo was, of course, correct in his findings but the belief system of the time was so entrenched in their own beliefs that he was considered a non-follower and banished. Christopher Columbus proved that the world was not flat but he took a big leap of faith in doing so. Prior to his trips around the oceans it was thought that one would fall off the edge of the world once they reached it. Columbus chose to refute that belief system and re-create his own. When I was a young girl it was absolutely foolish to think that people could fly into outer space. Most people agreed, but not all.......today my children can, if they have enough cash, buy a trip to space on a rocket.....How cool is that? Talk about challenging belief systems...

Did you know that an elephant, if chained up for a while, will no longer try to free himself, even if the chains are no longer attached? Belief systems can hold you back, tie you down, chain you up or set you free if you wish. If you choose to be fearless, to challenge those belief systems, to be like Galileo or Columbus, where would you go? What would you do? What would be different in your life? Up to the challenge?

Me? I try to work on this on a daily basis. I don't do something simply because it's "what is supposed to be done" or because "that's what good people do." I decide on what my heart tells me to do, I listen with compassion and non-judgement, I consider my actions with integrity and grace and then I either do, or do not......

Living la vida fearless,

Jan

The Eye of the Storm

I had the chance to spend six wonderful days with my girlfriends last week. It was our 18th annual summer cottage "weekend" away....just the girls....10 of us, no kids, no husbands, no distractions: the only rule, have fun, relax and enjoy.
The weather was a little funny for this time of year up north: hot, chilly, cloudy, some showers, overcast and, of course, humid and sunny too. We made the best of it and managed to fit in time for swimming, sitting and reading on the dock, canoeing, board games, star gazing and shopping! For five days the weather report was something similar to "cloudy today with chance of severe thunderstorms." We paid no heed and had fun in spite of the pending storms. They didn't actually appear until the very last night we were all together. Good thing we didn't plan to do things waiting for the weather to co-operate.
Half the group left on Sunday night while the other half were happy to stay one more night. We are so lucky to be able to do this!
Well just as the first group was packing up to leave the storm broke...it promised to be full of fury and ferocious winds. We said our goodbyes to our women of the weekend and ran indoors to watch the storm. It was a blessing to be indoors on a night such as this: I am grateful for such blessings. The lightning looked like fireworks in the sky, lighting everything as far as the eye could see. Then the thunder, booming like cannons, right overhead of where we were staying. Crack, flash of light and then, the lights went out. No worries, we'll just wait for them to go back on: hmmmm.....they're not going back on, perhaps this is a problem....Yikes, the power is out. Now what? (all of this great detective work took place within ten minutes!) Thankfully some of the group had grown up on farms and/or spent time in girl guides so they were prepared. We were instructed to find candles, flashlights and matches. There was still a hint of daylight left so we quickly searched for, and found, the coveted objects. I felt like I was in a scavenger hunt but we were all winners in this game.
As darkness set in I was grateful for the practicality of those wise women: the power would be out for many hours. I had never realized how dark darkness can be. Being a girl who spent most of her growing up time in the "burbs" the lights from distant cities marred the darkness. I sat back and waited for the show to begin. I was not disappointed. The sky would just be black, like the darkness of a cave underwater, and then a bolt of brilliance would light up the vista for miles. You could see the silhouettes of the trees, the clouds, the lake: it was eerie, awesome and spectacular. Mother Nature in all her glory providing us with a show we'd never witnessed before.
It never occured to me to be frightened by the storm. I was just so awe struck at the entire sight that being frightened never occured to me. We were safe, indoors, had lots of food and light(since we had found the candles and flashlights) and morning was only a few hours away.
I stood by the big picture window overlooking the deck and the lake and mused....as I am wont to do about the storm. We were in the eye of the storm if you will, full of chaos, fury and flashes of electric currents that could cause severe damage. But, we were also witness to the beauty of the storm, the pitch dark of a place without lights, the vulnerability of dependence and the knowledge that we would be safe where we were. I got to thinking about life and living and how "being" in the centre of the storm can offer up many teachings. Being in the centre of the storm provided me an opportunity to know that, this too shall pass, and, when it does, the sun will rise again in all of it's glory. I appreciated the sunrise much more the next day, that's for sure.
Being in the eye of the storm taught me to see differently: to take on a new perspective: to change my view and, you know, I liked what I saw.
Thanks for listening. Living la vida fearless, Jan