If I’ve already written about this subject in one way or another — sorry — “Vagabond” becomes too big to keep track of every chink.
The young German Pastor killed by the Nazis, Bonhoeffer I think, said: “With or without God, we live without God.” Why is this obvious?
Usually we are situated between what we do and what happens to us. What we do involves our know-how rather than philosophy, while what happens to us can be wrapped in mystery open to all interpretations, including God. In daily life, we ignore the mysteries that don’t affect us; we take them for granted (“why is the sea salty? – because it is salty”). We exist, think, feel, act, we perceive the unexplained in Nature without caring how magical in itself it might be. In the more unusual situations, like inspiration, bliss, unexplained and unexpected experiences, some of us try to catalyze them, to control them through obscure means, like prayer, meditation, magic… But can the windmill provoke the wind? While facing the metaphysical, philosophical questions of his intense unquiet mind, the Pastor’s answer was: “Let’s do what we believe has to be done.” And he paid for it with his life.
issue 77 September-October 2003