I’ve been thinking about rebirth a lot, lately and wondering why. \u00a0All that rebirth stuff \u2014 I’ve always thought of it as merely wishful thinking, codified into religious precepts, to ease the mind regarding inescapable misery.<\/p>\n
Rebirth, opiate of the masses. \u00a0Or something like that.<\/p>\n
Rebirth, the place we put our hopes and dreams. \u00a0Next time. \u00a0Next time, things will be better. \u00a0Now what’s the likelihood of that? \u00a0Hopes and dreams are for this life, aren’t they?<\/p>\n
And that’s what troubles me about the whole rebirth thing. \u00a0It feels like giving up. \u00a0It feels like letting go, but not the good kind of letting go \u2014 as in I really don’t need this. \u00a0But the letting go in disappointment of the things we cannot or will not have. \u00a0 It feels like a way to talk about what we want without taking responsibility for them. \u00a0Without saying, goddamn it, you know, I could make this happen. \u00a0My life could take on this other pattern. \u00a0If I were willing to take the steps to make it happen.<\/p>\n
Or: \u00a0life, just surprise<\/em> me.<\/p>\n I’m up for that. \u00a0Throw me what you’ve got, and I’ll be grateful. \u00a0Throw me what you’ve got, and I’ll just deal. \u00a0Hand me my allotted time, and like clay, I’ll mold it myself. \u00a0And remold it. \u00a0Again and again. \u00a0And never bake it into a hard and brittle form that might look pretty for a while, but drop it and it cracks. \u00a0At first just hairline. But it’s broken, \u00a0And then it really breaks. \u00a0I’ll take my lump of clay, instead, and play! \u00a0Why not? \u00a0Is that too immature? What children do?<\/p>\n Are we supposed to find a form and stick to it, and say okay, this is me <\/em>this time. \u00a0Next life I will be different?<\/p>\n I do actually believe in rebirth.<\/p>\n I believe in rebirth every year when spring comes. \u00a0Every year \u00a0when those dead looking trees of mine show signs of something yet to come. \u00a0Not quite buds yet, but a kind of swelling at their tips, just waiting to burst forth into the welcoming air. \u00a0I am fascinated by springtime. \u00a0 I lie on the stones and stare into the soil and watch things grow before my eyes. \u00a0And watch busy little creatures scurry by. \u00a0And everybody’s just gearing up for here-it-comes folks, here it comes! \u00a0The little folk know, \u00a0The grasses know. \u00a0The buds know. \u00a0The blossoms too. \u00a0Except for the annuals, the rest all know about rebirth. \u00a0Bummer. \u00a0Being an annual.<\/p>\n So. \u00a0 I’ll take the rebirth of the trees. \u00a0Rebirth that we call springtime, that I will accept.<\/p>\n The ancient Egyptian word ‘neter<\/em>‘ tends to be translated as ‘god’ or ‘the gods’ \u2014 and that seems wrong to me. \u00a0Or maybe it’s just right: \u00a0the ancient gods are personifications of natural forces. \u00a0The wind, the storm, rivers and seas. \u00a0Thunder. Lightning. \u00a0Birth and death. \u00a0Given names and anthropomorphic figures, \u00a0We pray to them, hoping they’ll be kind.<\/p>\n But neter<\/em> is no more and no less than our word ‘nature<\/em>.’ \u00a0 And either we’ve forgotten to think of it as sacred, or the peoples of the ancient world were just plain stupid. \u00a0And came up with this notion of afterlife and rebirth and next time, to cope with the terrible misfortunes dealt them by fate.<\/p>\n Or maybe it’s we rational modern (and post-modern) folk who are the dumb ones. Not recognizing rebirth when we see it. \u00a0Not taking a chance in making things anew. \u00a0Not knowing there’s volition and there’s action. \u00a0Not seeing our dreams so vividly and working to make them true.<\/p>\n I’m in Brooklyn, and it’s bitterly cold outside. \u00a0The air is clear and crisp, but not quite clean. \u00a0No sign of life stirs in the trees outside my window, \u00a0save the birds, they’re there. \u00a0They’re \u00a0waiting. \u00a0Waiting. \u00a0They know what’s coming. \u00a0And they don’t need religion or prayer to make it happen. \u00a0Oh. \u00a0Noisily, they’re singing. \u00a0Well, I don’t care. Call it what you will.<\/p>\n Neter<\/em>. \u00a0Pretty glorious. \u00a0With no apologies to winter. \u00a0Gratitude only, for all the fine work done underground while we weren’t paying any attention at all.<\/p>\n Did you ever hear a tree say, “next time, next time it’ll be better”?<\/p>\n No. \u00a0They just make it happen, as best they can.<\/p>\n And if they’re an apple tree, well, they just don’t expect the pears. \u00a0“Life, just surprise<\/em> me,” they said one winter. \u00a0 Did they know about grafting? \u00a0Or do the gods just answer prayers?<\/p>\n Rebirth. \u00a0Shall I just wait? \u00a0Or sing? \u00a0Or ask to make it true? \u00a0Asking is so rude, don’t you think?<\/p>\n Just surprise<\/em> me. \u00a0I think that’ll have to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve been thinking about rebirth a lot, lately and wondering why. \u00a0All that rebirth stuff \u2014 I’ve always thought of it as merely wishful thinking, codified into religious precepts, to ease the mind regarding inescapable misery. Rebirth, opiate of the masses. \u00a0Or something like that. Rebirth, the place we put our hopes and dreams. \u00a0Next…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[250,216],"tags":[52,178,271,73,272,270],"class_list":["post-2631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays","category-kaddish-in-two-part-harmony","tag-death-and-dying","tag-life-cycle","tag-nature","tag-neter","tag-prayer","tag-rebirth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2631"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2636,"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2631\/revisions\/2636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beitmalkhut.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}