I don’t generally think about attics, especially since the place I now live does not have one. The bigger house from which we moved had a large attic and when we moved, it was a nightmare. It had somehow become filled with things. I am sure they went up there one by one and, at the time, were things we thought we would “someday” need or want. Sometimes folks put things in the attic to “store” them. Of course, out of sight, out of mind.
There is another attic law I think applies. What goes up never comes back down! I do remember carting things up to the attic. I am not sure I ever remember bringing anything back down. For the most part, it was forgotten. Occasionally, I would go to the attic and that usually took three times longer than I expected. I would be exposed to all these things that provoked memories. I would start reading an old journal or magazine. I would look at a book or a bunch of old pictures. Naturally, nothing ever happened. I would put stuff right back where it was in “safe storage.” And then we moved!
I thought about all this recently when I was going through some files on my computer. The process made me wonder whether our computers look like our houses. I have a friend who is always bringing order to chaos. I once saw his computer, and everything was neat…rows and files and the whole thing. My computer is not quite there. I have done better. But there is still a little messiness. Often, I need something, but I can’t remember where I put it. The problem with creating order is sometimes I can’t remember how I chose to order it!
I have a couple of files that I realized were a bit like my attic---my electronic attic. So, it was one day I opened this file and had an attic-like experience. I was sucked into opening things, reading things I had forgotten I saved and so on. It was a fascinating history into some aspect of my past. I found all sorts of things I was glad to re-discover. And of course, there were things I have no clue why I wanted to save that!
Interestingly, the article by Umair Haque is entitled, “How to Find Your Soul?” Of course, with a title like that, I could not resist. He begins by saying, “I talk a lot about the soul these days.” He plays around with the reader for a while. Then he comes to a fascinating point. “So, what is it in you that loves?” The soul is what he offers as the answer. “Nothing else in you is capable of it. Not your mind, not your thoughts, not your perceptions, not your senses, not reason, belief, calculation, desire, instinct. Nothing. Just your soul. No soul, no love.” This is a fascinating idea.
It does get one thinking. So, what prompts me to love? Maybe you can explain some forms of love as a physiological reaction to a particular stimulus. But that sounds rather cold and mechanical. No doubt, some aspects of love are reactive. But I chose to believe much of love is responsive. I am not sure how else to explain things like friendship and compassion. I am ok with the notion of love as a response of the soul.
Haque goes further. He hooks it to the idea of meaning and purpose, too, by playing on the effects of love. I like this move. Let’s listen to him further. It is as if he is on roll. “No love, no meaning, purpose, happiness.” Without love, he argues, there will be no meaning; we won’t have purpose. And happiness will be elusive. Surely, it would take a major paper or a book to argue this to a conclusion. But I appreciate the suggestive direction.
Haque next makes a deft move. He asks us to join him “go deeper into it (soul).” He asks, “What is this thing called a soul?” His answer surprised me. Again, love is the key. He posits that “to love is simply to see.” And then concludes, “So the soul is the part of us that sees because love is being seen.” A corollary of this would claim if we never have loved or been loved, we have never seen, and we would not know our soul.
The article goes on, but I had read far enough, I needed to step back and ponder what I had encountered. Maybe this is called “attic time.” For me it was not a trip down memory lane, but more like a new way to think about the future. It occurs to me one way to do soul work (which I have been trying to do for years) is to learn more about love and to do more loving. Every time I love, I am doing soul work.
And one way to do more loving is learning to see better---to see more clearly and to see everything there is to see. There will be multiple opportunities to do that. And it could be fun. I am up for it. So I now can put the article back in my electronic attic. I may go back there soon and poke around some more. I am glad I have it!
Those of us who have read theology or, perhaps, those who are people of faith and are old enough might well recognize this title as a reminder of the late Jewish philosopher and theologian, Martin Buber. I remember reading Buber’s book, I and Thou , when I was in college in the 1960s. It was already a famous book by then. I am not sure I fully understood it, but that would not be the last time I read it. It has been a while since I looked at the book. Buber came up in a conversation with a friend who asked if I had seen the recent article by David Brooks? I had not seen it, but when I was told about it, I knew I would quickly locate and read that piece. I very much like what Brooks decides to write about and what he contributes to societal conversation. I wish more people read him and took him seriously. Brooks’ article focused on the 2016 contentious election. He provocatively suggests, “Read Buber, Not the Polls!” I think Brooks puts
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