Spirituality and Imperfection

One of those books that I keep around for regular dipping into is the truly amazing book, The Spirituality of Imperfection: Modern Wisdom from Classic Stories by Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham (Bantam Books, 1992). Kurtz and Ketcham took the theme for the book from Alcoholics Anonymous that the first thing that needs to be done is to "stop playing God." In that admission of imperfection they show is the beginning of all wisdom.

One thing struck me recently when thumbing through the book- the difference between magic and miracle. Underlying the very concept of miracle

is the simple acceptance that we are not in ultimate, total control. This is also, of course, the inherent, eternal, fundamental of spirituality: you cannot control everything. You are a human being, and human beings make mistakes, and that's okay- because you are a human being, not a God. (Italics in original)

--p. 120

Magic, they say, is an attempt to fool and control (or perhaps control through fooling.) Addiction they say

represents the ultimate effort to control, the definitive demand for magic... and the final failure of spirituality. Turning to the "magic" of chemicals signifies the desperate (and doomed) attempt to fill a spiritual void with a material reality- to make "magica substitute for miracle.
--p. 120

I had a friend once who used to say that he doesn't believe in miracles, he depends on them. He understood the imperfection at the heart of humanity. Or perhaps the difference between willfulness and willingness. Kurtz and Ketcham go on:

Willfulness demands a kind of magical control over change and ... willingness creates an openness to being changed.

Quite some understanding. Is that why the modern mind was so overcome by a desire to explain in scientific and logical terms the idea of miracles? Coincidences were far better to see than something beyond control, like miracles. And the more we tried to take control for ourselves, the more we humans were looking for ways to do it ourselves. After all, magic is learned. It can be taught. Miracle? That's just not possible.

So today, take a look at what you cannot control. And don't need to control. In that place, I have a hunch, we will find miracle.