Zax Attax Sermon:
September 30, 2012
I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent a lot of time lately
following and communicating with my “friends” in the “Devil’s Playground”:
Facebook. I find it fascinating,
really, that people you think you know well, or people you’ve known but haven’t
seen for years, or people you only know from “friending” them on facebook all
have such wide and varying views of where our country exists in this time and
place we call two thousand and twelve.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve found myself absorbed by people’s
comments, rants, and diatribes. In
a way, even though I’ve found that some people’s extreme views and uncivilized
commentary can be shocking and at times downright scary, on the whole I’m finding
there may be some hope for humanity well past this dreadful economic downturn,
regardless of which candidate is elected to assume our highly coveted but
rarely respected position of Commander and Chief of the Free World.
That’s right, I said hope, and I wasn’t even attempting to
further the 2008 campaign promise of my favored 2012 candidate, Barack
Obama. The hope I see is that
regular everyday people in this country are actually attempting to communicate
with one another. This hasn’t
happened for at least a dozen years, so I see it as a promising
breakthrough. It’s still a far cry
from “listening” to one another, but the first barriers of completely
ignoring one another are beginning to come down, and it’s these impediments that
have created the division that currently exists among our chosen political
representatives. We don't listen to one another, and as a result, we’re sending our representatives
off on fools’ errands, because as we all know, they don't listen to each
other either. We blame our
representatives for obstructing progress or taking advantage of slim
majorities, but the reality is they have done nothing but behave like
representatives of their constituencies, and in this bizarre way act as proof
that our vehicle of government (The US Constitution and its inherent
representative democracy) is working just as it should.
Of course, we can’t continue living like Dr. Suess’
North-Going and South-Going Zaxes for much longer and expect the survival of
our country’s 230 year old political system and the “We the People” for whom it
was created to protect. It’s for
this reason that I suggest we look to our country’s brain scientists for help
in finding out about how we can use our all too human brains to help us get out
of this “Epic Standstill of 2012.”
John J. Medina, a developmental molecular biologist with
special research interests in the isolation and characterization of genes
involved in human brain development and the genetics of psychiatric disorders,
has recently written a book called Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving
and Thriving at Work, Home, and School that I suggest ought to be required
reading for all citizens of our country.
In his book, written in clear and concise laymen’s language, Medina outlines
what we can make use of in the limited knowledge we have about our brains. Though all 12 rules he discusses are
valid in our attempts to communicate with one another, two of the rules Medina
outlines, “survival” and “wiring,” can be of particular help in our endeavor to
listen and understand one another.
In short, he argues that brain science has shown
that each of us is “wired” differently, and to assume that someone else
understands you without each of us actually “listening” to one another is the
key to our species ability to “survive” and even “thrive” on this planet. In other words, we as a species have
made it this far because we have worked together. When we listen to and respect one another’s unique perspectives (wiring), and then make decisions that consider and include our individual perspectives, we persevere (survive). On the flip side, when we refuse to work together, we’re
working against our species’ biological instinct to “survive.” Reading Medina’s book may not convince
all people of the absolute necessity that we need to “work together,” but it will
certainly remain as anthropological evidence that, if we don't work together, our species had fair warning
from those who spent their entire lives studying the complex realities of the
human brain.
“Look here, now!” the
North-Going Zax said, “I say!
You are blocking my path. You
are right in my way.
I’m a North-Going Zax and I
always go north.
Get out of my way, now, and let
me go forth!”
“Who’s in whose way?” snapped
the South-Going Zax.
“I always go south, making
south-going tracks.
So you’re in MY way! And I ask
you to move
And let me go south
in my south-going groove.”
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