Tim Russert

[Speculum]

I thoroughly understand where you are coming from, and I can relate to it absolutely. I was – I am – a big Tim Russert fan. And I have always been a great fan of the press, even if from time to time they do disappoint (but then, don’t we all?). For as long as I can remember, I have subscribed to the sentiment expressed by Thomas Jefferson (I think it was), “If I had to choose between a free government and a free press, I would choose a free press” (that is not an exact word-for-word quotation, but it is close).

That said – and, judging from what else you have written in this forum, I expect you will agree with me, even if, again like me, you’re not crazy about having to address it today, the difficulty we all have sometimes with embracing the concept of a “loving and benevolent God” is that we assume God loves the same things we do and for all the same reasons and in all the same ways, and so we can’t understand why He would “take away” from us the things we want to continue to have! Who does God think He is, anyway!

Parenthetically, here I note that in a TZF article Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People, I make it pretty clear, I hope, that when we consider these kinds of questions, we must remember that, whatever we may conclude philosophically or theologically about them, we must embrace as our own the pain and suffering being experienced by those to whom these events occur, otherwise we open ourselves to some of the same. That is, I am convinced that the separative egoic perception “Your pain is not my pain” is a surefire invitation for trouble.

As you suggest, death of a loved one is a terrible burden. When his brother died, whom he dealy loved, Jiddu Krishnamurti vowed that he would never love another person like that again. Friends who have lost a loved one have said the same to us. I know it seems irreverent to suggest it in this context, but when our German shepherd dog died, Anna and I were literally struck down. Of course, we knew we would recover, and having been inner seekers for years at the time, we knew “in our heads” what was going on, but it didn’t help; for a long time, we were unable to control the tears. There is something about these kinds of attachment that absolutely knocks the wind out of us. My own sense of it is that it is in the nature of the human species (maybe some other species too?) to relate to one another in that way (deeply, intimately, indelibly), and likewise to rue the loss thereof, even sometimes out of all proportion, and there is nothing sensible which we can do about it. Indeed, the only way “out of it” is to transcend those human characteristics, and we cannot do that willfully (in my opinion and experience). Rather, it is something which evolves “naturally” (again, in my opinion and experience) along the spiritual path. The relationship thing is, to me, just another part of being human, with unavoidable highs and lows (that is, like everything in the egoic dual reality, it’s a two-edged sword), and like the sex drive, for example, which I address here, weakens and wanes on its own as we mature inwardly (spiritually).

All of that said, today I cannot help but say, as I am sure you do, that it is difficult to imagine the months between now and the November elections in the United States without the informing presence of Tim Russert. I wish him well, wherever he is, and his family strength and courage and comfort.