Below Empyrean

Preamble: - Folks, I am aware you have enough to read in the course of your work and that is why I truly appreciate when you read what I write, even if clarity is wanting.

My motto is ‘Clarity over Agreement’ attributed to a Jewish historian. I tell friends, as long as I am clear, I am relieved. Clarity should be the end result of a debate or commentary. Agreement is only a bonus.

I deliberately blurred the commentary below but historical traction will clarify the subject.

I call it ‘Below Empyrean’, paraphrased from a book titled ‘Above Empyrean’. The word ‘Empyrean’ according to the ancient Greeks is simply ‘the highest heaven

Below Empyrean

Bruce Herschensohn, author of Above Empyrean, said ‘the state of a human being is analogous to the state of a nation’.

I have issues; government corruption, the economy, health-care, traffic jams, gas prices and the yearly haze. On the home front, I have unpaid bills, mortgages, taxes, not to mention garbage disposal and even clogged drains.

Selfishly, the order of importance begins on the home front, but I realize when a debilitating health issue comes to the fore, my fight to regain my health immediately dwarfs the lengthy list.

Regaining personal health then becomes the main issue. A corrupt government for instance, is the least of my concerns. In essence, everything and everyone becomes a non-issue when my health is threatened.

Hypothetically, let us say I know ‘of’ cancer but not ‘about’ the killer disease, in that, I know it exists, but I am unaware it kills prematurely and painfully. Say, I am diagnosed with the disease and on the above premise, how would I react?

Just knowing ‘of it’ and not ‘about it’ is not useful knowledge because, not being aware that it kills prematurely and even painfully, I will not take the crucial diagnosis seriously. My ignorance therefore enables me to ignore the diagnosis and attend to the more pressing matters, which would otherwise be dwarfed if I were aware ‘about’ the nature of the disease.

In 1969, with much pomp and splendor, a nation, composed of a vibrant people, was surreptitiously injected with a cancerous cell, but due to ignorance of this particular strain and the havoc it could wreck, it attended to what it thought were more pressing matters then, such as race riots and a possible turnover of the government.

In 1988, it was reminded of the disease and that the cell had multiplied considerably, but due to its continued ignorance of this particular strain, the debilitating health issue was again set-aside for other pressing matters such as corruption and possible turnover of the judiciary.

For more than two decades since, several reminders were offered, that the strain was incubating to its logical conclusion, but other pressing matters such as inflation, gas prices and even a possible change of government, took precedence.

Not unlike the ignorant human being, it is analogous the danger to the nation is grave, in that, although it is the aware ‘of’ the strain, it appears oblivious ‘about’ the nature of the disease. It knows of its existence, but is unaware the disease would eventually implode upon and destroy it.

For its survival, an urgent independent read of the disease is imperative because knowing how it works is the key to knowing how to resist it