Humility, Vegas and Mountains
For me it’s the mountains, not the neon, that makes Vegas a beautiful place to live. I’m still in awe of their majesty and their message as I think about my time in this world. With every new day my time here erodes just as the winds and the weather will eventually erode these mountains. My life dimly measured in dozens of decades; the mountains deafeningly measured in multiples of millions.
My childhood rooted in 1970’s suburbia, growing up in former farm fields newly planted with young families. Pioneer homesteads for the multitudes migrating west from the city in a garden. Flatlanders leaving behind an urban landscape of street canyons and steel and concrete mountains.
A kingdom of towers scraping the sky to serve commerce and wealth. In May 1973, Chicago’s tallest building would open for business. A tribute to the world’s largest retailer; a title that would be short lived. Replaced by another retail empire whose reign will end like all earthly kingdoms.
As impressed as I was with these human achievements of engineering, design and construction, they never spoke to my soul. That would only happen when I found myself absent from the city and immersed in God’s garden of creation. Rolling ravines replacing manmade material mountains; forests of trees replacing fields of streets.
In 2019, after living most of my adult life in Chicago proper, I would again migrate west with my family. An aged flatlander journeying from an urban lowland to an arid basin. A desert valley riddled with roads and sprouting concrete and steel towers. Every human creation and replication overshadowed by the massive mountains that encircle Las Vegas.
Mammoth mounds of granite and rock watching over a valley that has been transformed again and again. Like the faded billboard of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg in The Great Gatsby, silently observing the millions and millions of people who visit while living their brief life of folly. Every generation thinking it knows everything, before passing away often understanding nothing.
Mountains that will exist long after you and I, and countless future generations depart from this world. Our insignificance exposed and naked while these mountains endure. Their wisdom easy to understand when I pause and ponder their tremendous and timeless beauty.
I heart the mountains and I hear the mountains. Visually profound understandings about the nature of Love and what is required to love my neighbor. Divine whispers that sing to my soul the hymn of humility.
If pride comes before the fall, then humility; the humbling our heart happens before we surrender ourselves to God. To be born again, is about a new heart. A heart that loves all people and seeks the wellbeing of all people.
To see the light, I readily recognize my shortcomings and my failings before I judge and criticize other humans, particularly publicly. To be spiritually awake, is to be curious and inquisitive while always coming from a place of humility. A place that originates in the heart.
Like love, this world doesn’t place a high value on humility. Particularly now, in the age of individualistic relativism. We’ve become like Veruca Salt; all that matters is what I want and give it to me now. Even if what you want doesn’t belong to you or comes at a terrible cost to other people or the planet.
With no ethical framework of love all your neighbors, I can do anything which includes hurting myself or other people. I am under no obligation to honor them as Divine images because I believe I am the arbitrator of the divine. Humility is a hollow expression.
Like wisdom, this world doesn’t place a high value on humility. Particularly now, in the age of scientific and philosophical materialism. Falsely believing that only evolution and the social sciences can answer questions about the human experience.
What does it mean to be human, what is the good life, and what is the meaning of life? Questions atheism cannot answer because it only believes in the physical world and denies the spiritual realm. A recent and radical understanding in conflict and contradiction with the 99% of human existence that preceded us.
Like peace, this world doesn’t place a high value on humility. Particularly now, in the age of social media and swelling totalitarianism. Lifeless systems that primarily incentivize discord, disagreement and demonizing other people.
Generating controversy not modesty is the preferred method of reaping likes from strangers or bots. Narcissists who believe that the whole world is only watching them. Psychopaths who believe they can control you and the whole world.
Humility is a gift that will open your heart to God. Humility is a gift that will bring your soul peace. Humility is a gift that will enrich your life with wisdom and lead your heart to a path of love for all people.
Look to the mountains God created and they will share their wisdom.