Passages: Toward Order — At Principle Gallery
Here’s my creed, against Benjamin’s. This is what I believe:
‘That I am I.’
‘That my soul is a dark forest.’
‘That my known self will never be more than a little clearing in the forest.’
‘That gods, strange gods, come forth from the forest into the clearing of my known self, and then go back.’
‘That I must have the courage to let them come and go.’
‘That I will never let mankind put anything over me, but that I will try always to recognize and submit to the gods in me and the gods in other men and women.’
There is my creed. He who runs may read. He who prefers to crawl, or to go by gasoline, can call it rot.
—D.H. Lawrence, Studies in Classic American Literature, 1923
D.H. Lawrence wrote the above in response to the famous creed below of Benjamin Franklin which was included in Franklin’s autobiography:
You desire to know something of my Religion. It is the first time I have been questioned upon it. But I cannot take your Curiosity amiss, and shall endeavour in a few Words to gratify it. Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable Service we render to him is doing good to his other Children. That the soul of Man is immortal, and will be treated with Justice in another Life respecting its Conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental Principles of all sound Religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever Sect I meet with them.
I kind of lean more toward Lawrence’s creed, though if I had to choose a religious lean it would be much like the deist beliefs of Franklin and several other founding fathers that pledged no homage to a specific sect.
I think the line, ‘That my known self will never be more than a little clearing in the forest.’ sealed the deal for me. We all come out int the clearing at some point and others often think they know us based on viewing us there. But that momentary sighting is a sliver of all that we are, one small floating fragment in our kaleidoscope of being.
I also like his belief that gods come and go, in perhaps indistinguishable shapes and forms, into this clearing. I have often thought of people in my past who I never really knew, strangers really, who unwittingly have shaped my life with their words and actions at various critical points in my life. My interaction with these would-be everyday gods seemed innocuous at the time but later seemed to take on greater weight for me. They most likely would never remember the interaction or realize how profoundly their words or actions affected me.
It makes me wonder how many times we all have served as these everyday gods for others. Have we unknowingly affected the lives of others with a small gesture or a kind word at a time when it was greatly needed? Have we given someone hope when their seemed to be none?
Have we stumbled in the forest onto someone else’s clearing just as others have stumbled upon ours?
I don’t know. But the idea of it provides the basis for us treating others with kindness and in a manner in which we would like to be treated.
Isn’t that the basic tenet of most religions?
I guess if we are required to have a creed, this one works for me. Probably have been working by it for a while. At least, hope I have.
But will we ever really know for sure?
Redtree Times 