Struggles

Nothing can gather families back together better than weddings and funerals. Recently my cousin was married, it was a beautiful Christian wedding. I was honored to gather with them and witness the bride and groom profess their love first for their God, and then for each other…the way it should be. It was good experience for me as well, as I witnessed first hand that the “Church” is the people, not the building, nor the pastors, nor the dogma…but the community. While I am not a Christian, as a Theosophist I have the capacity to assemble with any group of people in worship of their God…because it is all the same to us. Since we believe in a Universal Deity, that God is beyond all attributes, all material labels that Men can concoct. All we Theosophist can say concerning God, is “It Is.” The first and all important attribute would be, “The Most Merciful.” Theosophy does not challenge the faith of others, it is a philosophy meant to enhance it actually; because Theosophy concentrates most with ethics & truth, it leaves faith in the hands of religion.

When families gather, stories get told of the past. You will often hear stories about your parents and grandparents, and sometimes…just sometimes you might just a hear a meaningful story about yourself. The morning of the wedding, my uncle told a story about me. He said, “Do you remember when you were around five years old at grandma’s house and I asked you if you had any hobbies? Do you remember that?”

I replied, “No I can’t say I do.”

He let a hearty laugh and said, “You know what you said? You said drinking.”

Now I want to clarify here, he meant drinking alcohol. Now one might brush that story off and say “Oh how cute, I was such a silly little kid…saying the darndest things!”

Not me! You see I don’t believe in coincidence. Let me tell you of another brief episode my estranged & absentee father told me. This story happened when I was even younger, probably two and half, no older than three years old. My Dad was a blue collar worker. He was a blacksmith (iron worker) for the railroad. After a hard day at work it was customary for him to drink a few cold beers…a pretty common thing. He was sitting on the couch and had just settled down to watch some T.V. with his freshly opened beer. I was running around in the living room full of little kid energy. He took a swig from the beer and put it on the coffee table. Apparently I ran up to the coffee table, grabbed the beer with both hands and started giggling.

My Dad said, “Well what are you going to do with that?”

I said with confidence, “I’m going to drink it!”

He said, “Well go ahead then.”

Now my Dad thought, like any parent, that a three year would not like the taste of beer. He was wrong, I turned that beer up and drank the whole rest of it (75% full)! Now that’s two different incidence about me recanted from two different sources. Would you find it surprising that later in life I also suffered from a drink problem…coming dangerously close to full blown alcoholic? Would you find it surprising that alcoholism runs rampant in that side of my family?

So remember what I said about reincarnation? A physical life will be given that will challenge you…based on your inner nature (dharma) and desires (kama). If a person lives a life as an indulgent person and has an intense desire for one thing or another (call it drinking) and has not exhausted that impulse in that specific life…it will haunt him again in his next life.