SOLVE ME A PROBLEM

A Homily by
James Ishmael Ford

26 November 2000

Today’s service begins with problem stories from a variety of sources. This homily follows after sharing the problems with the congregation, particularly with the children present for the service & coming to possible solutions.

What a collection of stories! And what solutions to the problems! I’m so pleased our children and youth have been here to help us make our way through all these questions. No doubt in my mind, we are surrounded by wise counselors ever as clever as Solomon in all his glory.

I hope in this exercise we’ve seen how truly; things seldom are what they seem. Old Gilbert and Sullivan are right. We too often find ourselves locked into old thinking habits, and set ourselves up for missing the point. What we’ve experienced day after day gives us an impression of reality. But, all too often it is an inaccurate, or perhaps more correctly an incomplete impression.

So, if we are locked into that incomplete impression, and find ourselves with a real problem, we might just miss the way through to a solution that works. As the editors of the Cow of No Color warn us. "Every day, whether we are adults or children, we have to make difficult choices to decide what is wrong and what is right." So, we need to wash the gunk out of our eyes. We need to be awake and aware.

This is a constant struggle against nodding off into the too comfortable. Fortunately there are always those waiting to help. As A.A. Milne sings. "Christopher Robin/Got up in the morning,/The sneezles had vanished away./And the look in his eye/Seemed to say to the sky,/’Now how to amuse them today?’"

We need that knocking off balance, that difficult amusement of seeing with fresh eyes. Because, as we do this with our small difficulties, we may also discover how to find our way through the great problems as they confront us. Today, we’ve explored some of how we can creatively approach the problems of our lives. Today, we’ve seen how insight and cleverness can meet, how laughter can join the serious quest, and how we might even engage the greatest problems.

Of the tales we told here two come from trickster traditions. I’m very taken with the type. Tricksters are, I believe, the teachers who most show us the value of creativity, of thinking outside the proverbial box. So, let’s just take a moment to reflect on this.

We need to understand what Joha and Nasruddin stand for when we describe them as tricksters. When we look the word up in Merriam-Webster we find first "one who tricks," in my opinion a rather pedestrian definition not worthy of a great dictionary. And then "stage magician." And finally we come to it. "(A) deceptive character appearing in various forms in the folklore of many cultures."

But, still not good enough. I think Ambrose Bierce, in his wonderful Devil’s Dictionary, defining another of trickster’s persona, the fool, gives a much more accurate description. Here we find "A person who pervades the domain of intellectual speculation and diffuses (her or) himself through the channels of moral activity. (She,) he is omnific, omniform, omnipercipient, omniscient, omnipotent. (The trickster, the fool) invented letters, printing, the railroad, the steamboat, the telegraph, the platitude, and the circle of the sciences."

Platitude. Children, that is not an animal with a duck’s bill living in Australia. Here old Mr. Bierce is warning us that the trickster’s gifts are not always good. For instance we can wonder about Christopher Robin’s amusement. Here in fact we are encountering an embarrassment of riches.

Within the archetype of the trickster we find our own creative impulse. And this impulse is a mixed gift; creativity is also chaotic. So, of course, one time trickster gets hoisted on his own petard such as Joha getting the sound of money. While at another time trickster succeeds, as Nasruddin has a profitable career smuggling donkeys.

What we need to notice here is that trickster doesn’t bring morality. And that’s another extremely important aspect of our human lives. Finding our moral perspective gives balance to trickster’s creativity. Nonetheless, we still need that creativity. It is like fire. It can burn, and it can warm. Winter is fast approaching. We need to be careful, but also, we very much need that fire.

Each time we hear the stories of tricksters, the improbable opens its doors for us. At that moment if we are lucky and attend, we might find ourselves opening up to new possibilities. Indeed, in reflecting on these stories, we begin to understand those most profound human characteristics: creativity, intuition and discovery.

How goes that old saw? "Minds are like parachutes. They only function when they are open." Should we hope for creativity, intuition and discovery to enter our lives we need to be wide open to the unexpected. Now, in some profound ways we actually start off creative. We are born with vivid imaginations. As children, we hear the sounds of distant hoofbeats and we don’t necessarily think of horses. The thundering herd advancing on us could be zebras, or maybe even hooved dragons taking a break from flitting about among the clouds.

From the perspective of openness, without any idea of what it is that is coming over the ridge, we look with great anticipation for whatever reveals itself. Spiritually, this is what I think Rumi meant as he sang. "Keep silent, bathe in this wonder./Renounce the secrets; this is the secret." If we are open there are no secrets. And when we are like that parachute doing its job, we are wide open.

Of course there needs to be a time of assessment. Here we need the grown up part. There is a necessary point where things like moral judgement, like harmony, like responsibility enters the process. Meaningful creativity is not about endless openness. After we hit the ground, we would look pretty foolish walking around dragging that open chute behind us

So, let’s review the process. As we heard in the "Dance of Elegba" "They finished selling their goods and then set off down the road together. Before they entered their homes, they made sure to leave a special offering to the shrine of (the god) who showed them to look one step beyond their own place on the road before losing a friend, or a good day of work at the marketplace of life."

Good advice, don’t you think? We need to celebrate the creative impulse, and make our offerings to it from time to time. Like today. We need to tell the stories. We need to hear the creative urges of our children and the tricksters within us all, about how to open the parachute, how to listen for zebras, how to appreciate the clever.

There is, however, as Solomon himself taught us, "A time for everything." These images, parachutes, herds of hooved animals advancing on us, each have a place. But, they also are only meant to help us get somewhere. The Buddha reminds us that as significant as a raft might be, once it gets us to the farther shore, we really don’t need to be dragging it along as we make our way into town.

We need to remember the rest of our hearts, the love that binds us together, the hope that weaves our lives into a sense of meaning and purpose. At some point we need old Occam’s razor, cutting the lines to the parachute after we’ve landed.

I think it is wonderful how that teacher from of old, the great King Solomon has also taken on aspects of trickster for us. But, in the traditional stories, his offerings are usually better integrated than those of tricksters in general.

That’s why King David would consult his son "when he had a difficult case to decide, and when he grew older, Solomon’s wisdom became known the world over. Perhaps this story also explains the Yiddish proverb "A child’s wisdom is also wisdom."

So, my prayer. May our lives be a joining of all the forms of insight and wisdom, creativity and maturity, laughter and serious assessment. Indeed, may this all come together in our beings to create a joyous existence for everyone and everything on this planet.

Amen.