Life is a journey ... Our vessel has to adjust its sails according to the wind, but our destination never changes. It is heaven, or God's kingdom, or paradise. Where it is, what it's like, how we will get there exactly, and how long it will take to get there are all mysteries. We travel on, nonetheless.
If you're interested in the study of civilization like I am, there's a good chance you've played at least one of the games in the Sid Meier's Civilization series. One of the first technologies a player can research in the Classical Age of Civilization IV is Sailing. When you finish researching a technology in the game, a quote pops up on the screen to celebrate the momentous occasion. Civilization IV has probably my favorite quotes from the series, and their quote for Sailing is the title of this article. Let's unpack the wisdom behind it and how it inspires my work here at Rambling Spirit.
The origin of the quote is unknown, but it has become a proverb that, fittingly, helps direct my life choices. Whenever I make bad choices and go astray, it's because I tried to go my own way, directed my sails according to my own errant sense of direction, and ignored the influence of the indicative winds in my life that were pushing me where I needed to go.
The wind has long been a metaphor for the Holy Spirit. It blows where it wills, and we don't know where it came from or where it goes. So it is for those who are born of the spirit (John 3:8). We cannot catch the wind or see it, but we know it's there. So it is for the Holy Spirit. The wind has also been a source of inspiration for Rambling Spirit, largely due to the fact that it resembles the Holy Spirit in many ways.
The Flow of Rambling Spirit
The articles on this blog come from many different directions, like the wind. If you look at the image above, you'll see the sailor is following an eight-point star instead of the typical 5-point star. This design in the image is intentional. The eight-point star is often used in Nativity art for the Star of Bethlehem. That is one of the reasons we chose it. The eight-point star holds significant Christian symbolism. It points to---or symbolizes---the Eighth Day, which traditionally symbolizes the New Creation to which we are all born through baptism, hence the eight sides to baptismal fonts. Thirdly, the eight-point star resembles a compass, which highlights the idea that we're actually headed in a certain direction and not just traveling around in circles like someone who is lost. This is significant because the ancient Greeks and Romans believed history was cyclical. They believed humanity was going in circles, and that everything happening in their day will happen again in perhaps several thousands of years or so, with simply the details changing. Christianity introduced a linear concept of history, one in which humanity is headed toward a destination, heaven. The eight markations on a compass denote the four cardinal directions, as well as the four ordinal---or intercardinal---directions of northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest. Thus, the eight-point star symbolizes how rambling spirits wander but are not lost because they are following a star that is guiding them to some definite destination. We wander, like the Three Wise Men, with the faith that the star will lead us to the Savior.
Perhaps the historians and philosophers of the classical civilizations were right, in one sense at least. It is Christianity that gives humanity a sense of direction after all, by directing our eyes toward heaven and salvation. In a pre-Christian world and without Christianity, therefore, we would be lost and just going in circles.
Let's dive a little deeper into this faith-based sense of direction that guides our publication. The twelve sections of Rambling Spirit are divided into three parts---Humanities, Society, and Culture.
By "humanities" I mean the subjects that explore our humanity. The humanities provide the blueprint for the overarching ideas influencing our society and culture. What we believe it means to be human impacts everything we do, so the humanities will always be the undercurrent directing a society and culture.
By "society" I mean the institutions, sectors, and organizations that allow our nation to function as a unit; our governments, our academia, our infrastructure, and so on. We all participate in society in some way and it influences our decisions, but it is not as close to us as our culture and it doesn't influence us as much as the deep-rooted ideas shared in the humanities.
By "culture" I mean the customs and mores that embody the ideas most prevalent in our society. Our culture, simply put, is all the things we do every day. It is closer to us than the humanities and society, but is influenced by both.
The four sections in the Humanities (Theology, Philosophy, History, and Literature) reflect the Four Cardinal Directions, the four in Society (Academics, Politics, Economics, and Science) reflect the Four Ordinal Directions, and the four in Culture (Multimedia, Lifestyle, Sport, and Travel) reflect the Four Things that physically carry us in those direction: the waters, the boat, the wind and the captain. Some may say, 'I have no captain, I walk alone.' While that does sound appropriate for those who'd call themselves rambling spirits, even if you do walk alone, wouldn't you at least say God is guiding you? I hope. If so, then he is your captain.
So, the eight points on the compass star symbolize the ideas we cover in the Humanities and Society parts of Rambling Spirit. The Four Things symbolize the substantial implementation of those ideas covered in the Culture part's four sections: lifestyle, sport, travel, and multimedia. Thus, when we speak of "The Four Things", the word "things" isn't arbitrary. It represents the tangible, concrete embodiment of the abstract concepts discussed in the other eight sections. Without these things discusses in Culture, we would just live in a shadow world of wishful thinking. The ideas we discuss have to bear fruit in the physical world, or else we're just dreaming.
So, that's the idea behind the flow of Rambling Spirit.
Civilization, Society, and Culture
The flow of Rambling Spirit is designed to represent a journey. Anyone or anything could be taking that journey, because what is true for us as individuals, fellowships, or communities, regarding journeys is also true for us as a civilization, culture, and society. In fact, the Bible itself is the story of Israel's journey, and Israel's history of fall and redemption is very similar to our own personal stories. Just like the Israelites, we stumble, we get back up, we leave God, we return to him, and our story is fulfilled in Jesus. I don't know about you, but when I read and think of the stories in the Bible I often see myself as Israel.
One of the big problems Rambling Spirit addresses is how we've lost the plot of our stories. As a modern society, we have lost sight of the understanding that the ideas shared in the humanities influence our society and culture. Societal influencers in business, politics, academics, and the sciences often think they direct the winds of civilization; but the true influences were set in motion long before they came around. That is why the ordinal directions symbolize the Society part of Rambling Spirit. If we set one of them as our heading, we're not traveling straight toward one of the four cardinal directions.
In the age of exploration for the world and America, the clarion call was to "Go west, young man", and chase the setting sun to discover new lands. For centuries, explorers were guided by the North Star. During the winter, people and birds head south. The sun rises in the east, symbolizing a new beginning, the dawn of a new day---thus, traditional churches face the east. The cardinal directions have always been the more desired heading for a journey because they are more natural and definitive than the ordinal directions.
Thus, it may seem like we rambling spirits have no destination, but in reality it's just that we have no destination here on earth. We set our eyes to the heavens like the explorers of old who followed the North Star. In other words, a rambling spirit does ramble on like this post, but not without a purpose or destination. We ramble on as a rambling brook meanders into a river, and a meandering river rambles on into the ocean.
A healthy civilization is guided by a similar transcendent and natural vision. Just as a healthy soul sets its eyes to heaven, a healthy civilization is influenced by good theology, good philosophy, good historical analysis, and good literature. The Humanities reflect on the qualities that make us human such as our pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty, our desire for justice and love, our longing for a transcendent end in heaven, and so on. These are, after all, the qualities that make us human. When a culture allows itself to be influenced by the humanity of its members, we begin to see that influence in the built environment, the music, the arts, and other places. In other words, we see the influence within actual things. Society then catches on, and formulates campaigns, marketing strategies, products, and promises that align with the culture.
When a culture is deprived of its influence from the humanities, in a sense it is deprived of its humanity. Then the culture begins to dwell more on temporal matters like 'How much money can we make off this movie?". "What's gonna get us more likes?", "What's the cheapest way to build?", and "How can we get more votes?" These are all concerns of a myopic culture influenced by nothing more than the corporal realm. In a way, the lack of humanity becomes its own philosophy, one that's utterly bereft of a transcendent vision.
The order of the sections in Rambling Spirit reflect the trickle down effect. In Rambling Spirit's original print editions, we placed the Society sections before the Culture sections to give context. Sadly, our current culture is more influenced by our society than the other way around. In a recent conversation with a friend, I discussed how politics---for instance---is downstream from culture. This was an optimistic opinion, because what I meant was that politics should be downstream from culture. Unfortunately though, in our culture today it's not. Instead, our politics often influence the culture, and it's very ugly. Our cultural expressions are full of hate and prejudice fueled by political ideologies. Similarly, when science influences culture, it's dangerous. We obtain new technologies and new abilities but use them without much prudence or ethical concerns, because we lost sight of what it means to be human. When academics are deprived of cultural influence, education becomes rudimentary and boring, lacking context and direction. When economics influence the culture, money becomes the main factor in everything we make from movies to buildings. As you probably see, that is exactly what has happened in our society and culture and Rambling Spirit hopes to help set the ship back onto a cardinal heading. The hope is to one day switch the positioning of Society and Culture in Rambling Spirit, to reflect the fact that our culture is influencing society, and that our culture is rooted in a deeper appreciation of the humanities.
Is this too optimistic of a hope? As a people, we are more persuaded by temporal, superficial matters than we are by transcendent, eternal ones. We choose our work mainly for the money. We look for quick fixes to temporal problems. I struggle to keep my eyes on heaven and wonder where we're going, because I am so often pulled back down to earth by concerns that won't even exist after I die, like paying my bills and improving my wordly reputation. What about building a better future for humanity? What does that even mean? I struggle to even find people talking about where we're headed as a culture, as a society, as a civilization, as a human race.
I don't know where I'm going, but I know how to get there.
But at least Rambling Spirit can give us a bit of a map, even if we know little to nothing about where we're going. We'll figure it out as we go, I guess. The closer we get, the clearer the destination will become, but we have to at least make an effort to get somewhere, wherever that somewhere may be.
This is true on a more personal level as well. On a regular basis, I find myself praying, "Lord, just tell me what I need to do next. I don't even want to know what tomorrow, or even the next moment, will bring. All I can handle is the present." A sense of peace comes over me like a cool breeze when I pray that. This morning, I opened up the windows in my house to get a deeper sense of the wisdom in the wind. The cool breeze passed from one end of the house to the other and cleared out the stagnant scent that had been sitting therein.
There is a method to the wind's madness. It scatters seeds, it cleanses, it fells trees to make way for new life. It is invigorating and refreshing. It moves the weather. It's ever changing, and we can only have a vague idea of its nature and tendencies. So it is with the will of God. There is some design to it, but it is beyond us. We cannot be sure of God's reasons, but we can adjust our lives to them. Many people say that ramblers like me act on a whim, changing direction and directives day to day. That's not true. I'm just adjusting my sails to the winds of God's will.
So we are on a journey, as so many spiritual and faith leaders like to say. Our vessel has to adjust its sails according to the wind, but our destination never changes. It is heaven, or God's kingdom, or paradise. Where it is, how we will get there exactly, what it's like and how long it will take to get there are all mysteries. We travel on, nonetheless.
Rambling Spirit is the log we keep along our trek. Through these articles, I hope to give readers a clearer view of where we are headed. Truth be told though, my own view is only as vivid as the marks that guide me. Some are landmarks on earth, others are in the heavens. Some articles receive inspiration from God's revealed truth. Others discuss human enterprises that help lead the way. Whatever the case, like a ship on the wide open ocean that only has the mission to discover new lands, our map is only as good as the explorers who came before us, and ultimately we can only end up wherever the wind will take us.
David Kilby is founding editor of Rambling Spirit and managing editor of Catholic World Report. He has written for several publications including Trenton Monitor, centraljersey.com, Ascension Media, and Catholic Herald. He holds a bachelor's degree in Humanities and Catholic Culture from Franciscan University and a real estate license in New Jersey.
Comments