The theme of our present writing may be contextually articulated by an anecdotal recounting of a true and instructive, personal event. For many years, it was our habit to start Monday, Wednesday and Friday with a morning swim at the 92nd Street Y. We would change our clothes in the large locker room prior to a cursory shower, followed by our swim. Customarily, during the routine activity of changing into our swimsuit or, thereafter, getting dressed in our street clothes, we would engage in a bit of casual banter with others similarly engaged. One notably singular locker room interaction has remained enduringly memorable.
One of the locker room regulars was speaking to a friend whose gym locker was next to ours, regarding the friend’s, as described, “disappointing” and “boring” vacation. “There was absolutely nothing to do,” he complained. We were completely flummoxed when he disclosed that he was making reference to his trip to the City of Prague in the Czechoslovak Republic. We, in fact, had the good fortune to have visited that destination on two occasions and, to the contrary, found it to be spellbinding and memorable.
Prague, the Capital city of the Czech Republic and the center of historic Bavaria, is nicknamed the “City of 100 Spires,” possessing many colorful baroque buildings, tall, eerily gothic Churches, the Ancient Astronomical Clock which evinces an hourly show, the quick-flowing Charles River with its span of Medieval Bridge adorned with medieval sculptures, is the birthplace of Mozart and still rife with daily musical presentations, is the major venue of the Bohemian and Protestant Reformation, the center of the “Thirty Year’s War,” the location of the oldest synagogue in Europe, the venue of the legendary “Golem,” a known venue for collectible Bavarian glass, artesian puppetry, and exotic underground restaurants, all situated in an exotic medieval gothic setting and atmosphere. We could continue the recounting of Prague’s captivating features, however, our thematic subject is directed to the value of Man’s lifelong enrichment by contemplative experience and not that Middle Ages City, as such.
The complaining locker room speaker, as later perplexingly revealed, was identified as a practicing, licensed dentist, thereby, attesting to his graduation from college and professional school. His disturbing, birdbrained and shallow complaint was exacerbated by such information; however, in later thought, the phenomenon was somewhat resolved; the substance of which resolution is offered as the leitmotif of this writing.
We have often written of a truly essential ingredient to the attainment of a meaningful life, which, for lack of a better term, we have referred to as “the lifelong inner conversation with oneself,” i.e. the inner, contemplative observation and thought-provoking stimulus evoked by presenting situational experience. It has been our observation that the possession of a contemplative persona and its resultant acquisition of empirically based determinations founded in experienced reality are existentially necessary to the beneficial enjoyment of life. The absence of an inclination for the dynamics of inner, thoughtful observation is a substantial disability. Such costly disability, it would seem, is not, as we formally assumed, relegated to the under-educated and poorly informed. As seen in the above-cited locker room incident, education may not be the universal panacea.
We have also declared that the development and maturation of a stable, nuanced and referable persona, (self-image) appears to be the dynamic product of meaningful interpersonal interaction. The thematic inclination to independent contemplation is sadly, not universal. Many individuals seem to have “closed the window” and remain systemically limited to the role of a mere spectator viewing the external scenario as merely anecdotal or episodic phenomena.
Perception without the beneficial and enduring accumulation of contemplative perspective, constituting our declared foundation for the exercise of rational judgment, when called upon, is an empirical deficiency. Such lack of internal resources may be normally expected in young and inexperienced children but remains a costly disability in the mature individual; who, lacking capacity for a satisfying and fulfilling, contemplative life experience, lives a superficial, barren, reflexive existence. Observed phenomena would seem to possess enduring significance, only to the extent that they are imprinted on developing, evaluative consciousness. One’s capacity and inclination to open his inner contemplative window to experiential events adds to his accumulating understanding and leads the way to ultimate wisdom.
Inarguably, formal education exists as the most effective route to integrated understanding and insight. The cited locker room experience, however, demonstrates that it is possible to undergo the process of formal education, yet lack the invaluable aptitude for inner growth from experiential enlightenment and its resulting potential for the achievement of wisdom.
-p.
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