"Letters from the Earth" Remind Us to Listen to Our Hearts

Recently, I re-read Mark Twain's "Letters from the Earth", and found amusement in the creative approach the truly agnostic if not atheist writer delivered his ironic observations of the human condition.    In one chapter of letters, titled "Satan's Letter", the devil, in sheer bafflement, tells of his experiences on earth, and the "strange, interesting, astonishing, grotesque" ways of human's thinking.  He hysterically rattles off all the things that man "believes in" when it comes to heaven, and they are things that we actually have no "interest" in, yet, somehow, we've convinced ourselves, it will be enjoyable once in heaven.  This includes his humorous statistics of the number of people that go to church and the number who actually enjoy being there as well as the number of men who actually love to sing all day, versus their belief that heaven consists of exactly that, and their insisting it is what they want in their after life... just not now.  He informs that "all nations look down upon all other nations", but insist in heaven, they will all hold hands; "all men and women love copulation, but in their heaven, it is replaced with prayer"-- the thing, the devil reminds us in his letter, that they often downright begrudge actually doing.  And so on. In other words, all that is valued is strangely left out of this perfect heaven and all that is boring and dreadful for us to endure is the very essence of the heaven that people claim to want to go to for eternity.

This book is filled with witty descriptions of the psychology of the human race.  Satan's Letter by Mark Twain reminds me, however, that the mind is full of contradictions and the heart is full of only sincerity.       When I think about things I have allowed myself to be convinced of, I also distinctly remember the division between my heart and my thoughts in every unhappy situation.  The heart knows when our mouths have said something demeaning to another person.  The mind will question if someone is two-timing us.  The heart will know. We know when someone is hurting us because we have feelings that react internally, despite what we've trained our minds and mouths to think and say.  And so often, people can say they are married but they feel utterly alone.  The things that have come to define us-- legal documents, memberships to clubs (or parishes)... are often not in-line with the things we actually feel or want.  People want to feel validated.  Society has come up with what "validation" consists of.  The societal pressures to conform allow us to foolishly do so when the independent voice and HEART of the matters we contend with have been swallowed into a place to be left ignored or dismissed.  The term "follow your heart" is good advice; it means rely on your intuition because "the mind plays tricks" on us at times.  And isn't it interesting the heart tends to have more reason than the learned vices of the mind?  Emotion and conscience don't always imply a lack of reason-- and rationalizations are not always free of emotional input... But the heart of a person is where the character and the intangible cosmic empaths reside.  The mind can be swayed, the heart thinks on it's own pulsations.

I think if Mark Twain's Satan were to write another letter today, he would likely delight in the Pro-Lifers who also believe in the Death Penalty and the P.E.T.A advocates who go to Sea World and have down comforters, leather belts and wool sweaters.  I think he would revel in the hypocrisy of upholding the Constitution by banning background checks but ignore the Civil Rights Act by forbidding same-sex marriage.  And I think he would point out the number of murdered wives by men who vowed to love, cherish and honor them for life (or until they decided not to and kill them).

Love is a verb, not a noun.  It is action through words and through silence... Through affection and through temperance.  Love is the ability to feel your emotions, owns your thoughts and express your interest in finding resolution through peace and gentility.  Love is not an engagement ring or bouquet of expensive exotic flowers.  Love is not fanfare.  Love is what exists when everything else dissolves.  When the mortgage cannot be paid, and the body fails to be resilient, thin or "new", love is holding onto that body and that person inside that body and feeling gratitude for having that moment together-- that life together.  It never ceases to amaze me the pressure some people still feel, in this day and age, to get married.  I recently asked a friend who is desperate to "find a man and get married", if she had to choose between being where she is now (healthy, single, gainfully employed in a career she loves with a plethora of friends and family that adore her) OR meeting a gorgeous, wealthy man that marries her and then, a few years down the road, mistreats her for the rest of their marriage, which would she choose. Without a pause, she replied "That's a hard one.  At least I wouldn't be alone".  And it was then and there that I saw who she was.  She believed that she wouldn't be alone if she had the title wife and mother.  What she will never understand, apparently, is that loneliness can't be cured with a wedding vow.  Her need to get this "thing", this... marriage, is not coming from a rational place, it's coming from a societal pressure and therefore a mind game that she is torturing herself with.  Everyone wants to be loved, but many of us try to label anything that resembles a relationship as love.  Love, is a noun in that case, not a verb.  I have found, true love dissolves the need for labels.  Satan's Letter might laugh at the money spent on weddings versus the money saved for... adoption...  And the subsequent divorces for 58% of those wedded?: even more expensive!  No one said she had to be married to experience love.  She fabricated that rule.

I loved a man very much but the day I decided to love myself, was the day I understood the true value of love-- if he could say he loved me, but my heart could only feel the pain of what he continually did to me, loneliness was the result of my staying with someone who said one thing but did another.  Like Satan's Letter reminds us: words are cheap, actions can be misleading, but, essentially, the heart of a person will always be sincere in telling the truth, even if it isn't what we want to hear.  I think we should start talking from the heart and the words will be truer and this earthly life will be simpler.