The I/ Thou Relationship; Hope for the World
Martin Buber in his tiny jewel of a book wrote of the I/Thou Relationship he’d come to understand as a concentration camp survivor.
Somewhere in the divide between opposites is a connector, and the connector is the Self or Soul, the light of which draws all together in harmony and balance. One finds the Self in the effort to expand consciousness; to go beyond apparent conflict to resolution that does not diminish either side but mediates.
The Self mediating conflict.
I’ve been blessed that my dog and cat are best friends. They chase one another around the furniture, the cat jumping up to the top of things where my dog pants from below waiting for the moment he knows his friend will jump down, and they’ll wrestle on the floor leaving piles of fur but never a nick in the skin of either.
They are my model of resolution of difference. Each is programmed to hate the other and yet, being individuals, they choose to relate not as enemies but playmates. And I, The Self, watch delighted, in hope for the world.
In a post last week I spoke about the goddess Nemesis who is really a friend in the guise of an enemy. When we are able to see in such a way, the world will be renewed; mankind will achieve its true potential.
