Raiders of the Lost Spark

George Leonard, in his book The Way of Aikido: Life Lessons from an American Sensei raises some insightful points about Mastery vs. The Quick Fix. Our consumerist culture offers copious false promises of easy, effortless results. We are, for the most part, a quick-fix instant gratification culture, striving to find the next minimum-effort, maximum gain endeavour. Mastery doesn’t come in a plastic egg from a gum ball machine, and yet our society is full of promises: to gain health without exercise, to eat cookies for weight loss, to gain enlightenment through yet another self-help book. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder: has God become a quick fix? Pray, and everything will get better. Was historical Christianity a band-aid solution for the instability of the Roman Empire, and therefore a means to elicit control over the people? Give them a faith and enforce it through legal means. I have no idea, and not the ego to make such blanket statements with 100% certainty because I don’t think there is an answer Personally, I cannot adhere to a faith because I was simply taught that “that’s the way” or because a book tells me so. To me, this is the Quick Fix vs. Mastery. I believe that finding my spiritual path is going to be a fluid, organic, and life-long journey. I don’t expect easy and effortless results. Rather, I hope for emancipation from that which the modern, Western world teaches us that God is and isn’t, and find my peace in the end!