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                       %SOCIAL MEANING OF MYSTERIES 880108

     We can control only limited aspects of our lives  and
environment.    We  may  feel that we should  be  able  to
exercise  control  over  more aspects  of  our  lives  and
environment  than we can,  and so we may feel a  sense  of
failure  or disappointment over our inability to  exercise
control.   Our limited ability to exercise desired control
is  likely to be related to our limited understanding  and
power to predict the outcome of certain circumstances; and
to  the  inherent  paradoxes present when  self  conscious
reflexive  people try to understand,  predict and  control
their  own  behavior  and  consciousness---including   the
development  of  their own attitudes,  emotions,   ideals,
values and goals.

     In  a social setting control is not always  possible.
Mysteries  will  exist.   The integrity of  the  community
depends in large measure upon how the community integrates
mysteries into the fabric of meaning within the community.
A  total failure to integrate mysteries into the fabric of
meaning  within  the  community will  ultimately  lead  to
communal  disintegration,  for such a failure will be part
of a collusive/addictive attempt to deny truths about  the
limitations of the members of the community; i.e., to deny
the  truths  that  they have only  limited  knowledge  and
powers  to  gain  understanding,  prediction  and  control
pertaining to their lives and environment.

     A  community  can  not enjoy  personal  and  communal
integrity if the members of the community are unable to be
themselves  in  open  and honest  dialogue  regarding  the
mysteries of their lives,  including the mysteries of  why
they  fail  to  live  up  to  their  values,   ideals  and
aspirations.

     A  community  can  not enjoy  personal  and  communal
integrity if the members of the community are unable to be
true  to themselves in open and honest dialogue  regarding
the  experiences  which they have,  which most  profoundly
challenge  their  understandings of  themselves  and  each
other.   Such experiences include those experiences having
to do with their violation of cultural norms, expectations
and taboos; whether explicitly articulated, or implicit in
covert taboos and collusions.

     Thus  the  integrity of a community and  its  members
depends  greatly  upon what traditions  persist  regarding
failures  to live up to communal ideals and  expectations.
If  those  traditions lead to the communal integration  of
what  can  be learned through the  interpretation  of  the
failures,   the community will enjoy integrity.   If those
traditions   lead  to  alienation,   the  community   will
disintegrate.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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