Seize the Strawberries

Serenity walks by my side and peace accompanies my way when my perspective is contained in the here and now. If I live in the future or dwell in the past for extensive periods of time, it makes me emotionally neurotic. Did Isaiah lapse into momentary memory loss when he wrote these seemingly contradicting verses in chapter 43?

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? vs. 18,19

Review the past for me, let us argue the matter together; state the case for your innocence. vs.26

Forget or review? Which is it? How do I handle the things that have passed? How do I manage that which is yet to come? Some of the old things still haunt me and those which are springing up scare the jeebies out of me. The past makes me cry with regret or smile in sweet remembrance. The future freezes me in my tracks or makes me want to bolt forward without hindrance.

Reading a classic, must-own book called The Ragamuffin Gospel, I've stumbled upon the solution to this quandary: eat the strawberries. Brennan Manning, the author, retells a Zen story that I am going to retell to you.

A monk was being chased by a ferocious tiger. He is pursued until he reaches a cliff. After looking back at the tiger, he looks to the edge and realizes there is a rope hanging over the side. He snatches the cord and begins to shimmy his way down the drop-off and away from blood thirsty fangs. Pondering his miraculous escape, he looks down to realize that a quarry of jagged rocks are waiting for him a few hundred feet below. He sees the tiger salivating above, now accompanied by two mice chewing at the rope, reviews the rocks down under, and wonders what to do. Looking in front of him, to the surface of the cliff, he notices a strawberry plant protruding from the dirt. He picks the fruit, eats it, and says, "Delicious! That was the best strawberry I've ever tasted in my life!"

Nothing like a little pressure from the past and the threat of the future, to make the present taste absolutely delightful. There be my philosophy and my solution to the Isaiah verses. What has occured before can not be altered and my mortality will become reality one day, but today I'm going to make myself sick on strawberries.