DEATH, FAMILY, AND LOVE
Michael H. Mitias
DEATH, FAMILY, AND LOVE
Copyright © 2020 Michael H. Mitias. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
Resource Publications
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paperback isbn: 978-1-7252-8049-6
hardcover isbn: 978-1-7252-8050-2
ebook isbn: 978-1-7252-8051-9
Manufactured in the U.S.A. August 27, 2020
CHAPTER ONE
Dr. Athenaion Meets the God of Death
Dr. Anat Athenaion was absorbed in a meditation on Hegel’s conception of the good society when she heard three soft knocks at the door of her apartment. She was startled, and to some extent annoyed, because she was not expecting any visitors, not on a Sunday morning, and because she was in the heat of a creative act. She was about to articulate a new interpretation of the much-discussed and spectacularly misunderstood concept of “ethical society.” That is, of a society in which people can flourish as human individuals, one that is vitally relevant to a society that seems to be increasingly dominated and governed by political, economic, religious, and scientific technocrats. She felt that this on-going development would inevitably undermine the essential conditions of human growth and development: freedom, justice, compassion, creativity, and friendship. If you deprive people of these qualities, you necessarily reduce them to social, economic, or political robots. You deprive them of the capacity to be human individuals, that is, the capacity to be self-determined human beings, beings who can chart the course of their lives and assume responsibility for it.
People who cannot assume this kind of responsibility are like sheep led by a shepherd, not like shepherds who lead their lives. But Dr. Athenaion believed that human beings are created to be, or become, human individuals. She never tired of asking her students, “Do you want to be a sheep or the master of your life? Do you want to be fattened and then led to the slaughterhouse without knowing why? Do you want someone to control your life?” She never tired of challenging them to think, feel, and make life-changing decisions using their minds and wills. She always reminded her students that humanity and, consequently, human individuality, is given to us as a potentiality awaiting realization and that we are responsible for realizing it. Human individuality, she once argued, is not only the most fundamental human right but also our destiny: “Yes, becoming who we are as human beings is our destiny in this world! Do you want someone to fashion your destiny?”
“The point,” she argued one day in her Existentialism class, “is not merely to think, feel, and act is not merely to be alive or to know how to survive. The animals in the wild are quite proficient in the art of survival. The point is to think, feel, and live as a human being. Be true to yourself! Take charge of your destiny! Live from the human spark that sits at the base of your heart. This spark is a divine gift. It is a cry for being. Be a cry for being! Be a living light of this spark!”
“Please remember that you are not granted this gift as a readymade reality but as a possibility, as a promise, as a potentiality awaiting realization by you and no one else. You are born as a human individual in the process of realizing it. Do not look for your destiny in some distant future, in the hands of philosophers, priests, legislators, scientists, society, or chance. Look for it in this spark, in this shining jewel of humanity. The materials and the elements for designing and building your true self, therefore, of your destiny, are hidden inside it. Only when you stand on your feet and fashion its structure with your hands can you thrive as a human being. Only then can you be an actor on the stage of human life, and only then can you justify the life you have lived. Otherwise, you will remain a spectator, and you will die without knowing what your life was about.”
Dr. Athenaion paused for a few moments, gazing thoughtfully into the corner on the right of the lecture room, and with a mystical posture of mind, she continued, “Yes, only when you participate in the rite of human life as an actor can you move closer to God as your ultimate object of love and desire. Only then can you be a part of the creative spirit, the geist, that energizes the course of human civilization. Only then can you feel the pulse of life that radiates from this spirt and relish the joy it produces in your heart. And yes, only then can you think, feel, and know what it means to be. You are created to be, but you cannot be until you feel this joy in your heart. It may seem strange, at least to some of you, that only when you feel the presence of God can you become part of the creative spirit that underlies the cosmic process. Only then can you love God directly, and only then can you glorify him truly: How can you glorify him if you do not feel his presence if you do not feel his radiance? Has it occurred to you that the strongest urge of this divine spark is to partake in the cosmic process? Has it occurred to you that being such a participant is the ultimate source of inspiration in designing and implementing our life-projects?”
“Tell me, have you participated in the rite of creation in any sphere of human experience—art, science, philosophy, religion, politics, or your personal life? Have you felt the thrill of this type of activity—creative activity? Now, focus your attention not on mundane activities that you frequently perform during your ordinary life, but on the activity of creating yourself, which is the unfolding of your destiny in every moment of your existence. This activity is the source of the joy your heart craves more than anything in the world. Its domain is not your library, your ivory tower, your office, your garden, or any other type of mental or physical space but your social existence in which you meet your basic needs as a human being, namely your aesthetic, religious, intellectual, professional, and cultural needs. The process of meeting these needs is the medium in which you transform the divine spark in your heart into the human individual you should be. You exist, and you shine as a self in what you do, or rather in what you create. Your deeds, regardless of whether they are theoretical, practical, professional, or artistic, are the building blocks of the frame of your character. The promotion of good should form the foundation from which your actions radiate. Your self is true since your actions originate from your goodwill. Some actions are constructive, and some are destructive; some are morally good, and some are morally bad; some are admirable, and some are despicable. The building blocks of the true self are good actions primarily because the good is constructive, and the bad is destructive. You cannot dismiss what I have just said as fancy, abstract, or idle talk unless you first know what you are dismissing, and you cannot know what you are dismissing unless you feel the radiance of the cosmic spirit that pulsates not only in the cosmic process but also in the spark that shines like a sun in your heart. Otherwise, like those sheep, you will live and die without knowing why you lived and died. Besides, what if what you are dismissing is really gold and not straw?”
“Don’t let those teachers, priests, sophists, parents, and social charlatans, or the “they,” the invisible, inaudible “they” around you, persuade you that you exist to seek pleasure, accumulate wealth, power, life, social glory, or knowledge, for these authorities live on the fringe of the cosmic process, not as participants in its creative vision and power. No, you exist to be a creator, to promote goodness in your life and the lives of others, but how can you create goodness if you are not a human individual? And how can you be a human individual if you do not create yourself since you are given to the world as a potentiality for becoming a human individual?”
These rhetorical questions flowed from Dr. Athenaion’s mouth the way flames of fire flow from a crackling hearth. A philosophical angel would say that she was on fire. She paused for a few seconds, caught her breath, and then continued, “The point is not to seek happiness as a goal