PATRICK BUTLER: Catching The Wave

11 November 2010

PATRICK BUTLER COLUMN  "Under The Waterfall"

    I believe in the journey and the destination. Questioning and searching are fine, but if they don’t lead one to a conclusion than what is it all for?
    I was fortunate enough to observe the world of surfing – waves, not the internet – for a few years in California.  A surfer friend of mine once was waiting for a wave off the coast of Santa Cruz when he had a revelation. 
   As he waited, he told me, it hit him how much he’d enjoyed the process of surfing for 25 years. – paddling out, sitting on his board, watching the sunset, then catching a wave and riding it in alone. He was sitting on top of the world, as the Beach Boys put it.

   There was a certain peace, Doug said, from all the things he did involving surfing; checking out the waves, waxing the board, waiting on the beach for a good “set” and finally doing all the things surfers want to do – find the perfect wave (see the Bruch Brown Film “The Endless Summer II” for a colorful explanation of “the perfect wave”).
   What can we learn from surfing?  I understand the process is satisfying, but only in context; catching the wave. If you did all that surfing process stuff but never rode a wave, then you were denied what surfing is really all about.

   That goes the same for God, as I see it.

   Religion, in a nutshell, is the search for God, or relating to God, or finding God, or being found by God as various people describe it (some people want to leave the word “religion” out altogether, saying that it is “relation,” not religion that counts, as in “having a relationship with God.”).
   However you want to phrase it, is fine.

     But to some, it’s the search – the process – that is the most important thing when it comes to God. I want to say, “You missed all the waves if all you have is the process.”
    I once interviewed Jay Yelas, a BassMaster fishing champion from Texas and all-around great fishing guy. He is also full of faith.
    He said something I wholly agree with, seldom hear; “As long as people are really searching,” Jay said, “they’re going to get there. I find it hopeful that people are at least looking.”
    I do too. I prefer to speak with today’s post-modern spirituality seekers versus the “modern-era-now-passed” non-believers and faux-science atheists. At least there is a recognition that something is “out there.” There is something to help bring definition to.  I would add, however, that honest searching is also necessary for “getting there.”
  I have circumnavigated the world, visited many countries and asked a lot of questions about faith, belief, God and the purpose of life before I reached the conclusions I have today.
  I watched little old ladies in Japan through spit wads at huge statues of Buddha who were, a friend explained, literally throwing out prayers.
   “If they stick,” he said, “their prayers are answered.
  I’ve stood in the temples of Bali, watching men stab themselves with daggers, and women offering burnt animals to the gods. I was informed that, “they are appeasing their gods.”
  I witnessed the extreme poverty of street children in Mumbai, India and was told that all I saw was “Maya” – delusion – and the suffering I was seeing was not really real.
 After a solid year of traveling I came to the conclusion there are four general groups in the world; those who believe in nothing, those who believe in everything, those who believe in some things and those who believe a particular thing.
  I will say that at one point or another, I’ve been in each of those groups and in that order. Today, I believe one, very important particular thing about God.
   What helped me get through that process was a commitment I made to myself during my years-long, literally world-wide search; though I am very fond of what I believe to be true, I tell others and myself that I am ready to change for the sake of the truth.
  If I can be show the error of my ways, I will change them. I don’t want to end up being the Western equivalent of offering burnt, dead, chickens to stone gods, or making spit-wads stick. Life is too short for that.
  We can’t help what culture we are born into, what beliefs have been handed down to us, or what generations prior to ours, religiously practiced. What we do have control over is the search, the process, the questions, the learning.
  The only way to remain fresh, growing, vital and strong is to assume the position of a learner, an inquirer, knowing why we believe and willing to change if it just doesn’t add up.
  Though the process of searching is exhilarating in an academic and even spiritual sense, the process should lead to something, or you’re just sitting, waiting for a wave that may never come.