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                %UNDERSTANDING COMFORTABLE ANNALIST 870623

     Understanding   is   often   a   means   to   feeling
comfortable,   to  resolving   dissonance.    We  seek  to
understand the unfamiliar,  in terms of that with which we
are comfortable.    That  which  is  mysterious  leaves us
uncomfortable because we can not understand it in terms of
anything  which  is familiar,  in terms of  anything  with
which we are comfortable.

     That  which is essentially mysterious does not  yield
to analysis  as  a  means  to  comfort.    That  which  is
essentially  mysterious  is  essentially  unlike  anything
which  is  familiar,   and  can  not  be  made  to  appear
comfortable  by making it to appear like anything which is
comfortable.    Analysis  seeks  to  make  that  which  is
initially  uncomfortable appear to us like that  which  is
comfortable.

     We  are  comfortable  with  that  which  is  familiar
because  we have been comforted by others in the  presence
of that which is familiar.   We are comfortable with  what
our  culture  has  taught us to feel  comfortable  through
demonstration  of comfort in its presence.   Uncomfortable
analysis  in  the  presence of that which  is  essentially
mysterious  does  not  help us to be  comfortable  in  its
presence.    Such  analysis  leaves us  feeling  that  the
analysis  did  not  get  to  the heart  of  what  made  us
uncomfortable;   the  annalist was not comfortable in  the
analysis.  The annalist did not comfort us in the presence
of  that which was essentially mysterious when we were  in
its presence.

     To understand that which is essentially mysterious is
to be comfortable in its presence through being  comforted
in  its  presence  and  finding  that  both  personal  and
communal  integrity can survive in its presence.   We  are
uncomfortable  when  we feel our communal and/or  personal
integrity  are  threatened.    We are  comforted  when  we
discover  by  experience  that our communal  and  personal
integrity  can  endure in  the presence of that  which  is
essentially mysterious, and which  we can  not  understand
through  analysis to  reduce  it  into  familiar  elements
related to  each  other  in  already familiar  ways---even
though  the combination of  elements and/or  relationships
might be new to us.   To maintain our integrity we need to
comfort  each  other  in  the presence of  that  which  is
essentially mysterious and is accepted as such.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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