The Concrete Call

In class we defined the concrete call as a call for meaning, asking questions like “What does this mean?” or “What’s going on here?”. It seems to me that each individual hears the concrete call at multiple points in their life. Humans are constantly in need of regrouping and reassessing their lives in order to make sense of their experience on the earth through meaning-making. In class we discussed the difference between knowing and believing, the difference being that believe is not knowing but acting as though you do. I am wondering how much of our lives are founded in actual knowledge and how much is founded in belief. To me, it appears as though the greater portion of our lives is grounded in certain beliefs about things, people, and their natures than it is about hard and fast knowledge about them. One of the things I think I’ve been learning in the philosophy and religious studies department is that life is compiled of many and various beliefs rather than knowledge. Similarly, that the nature of life is such that things are constantly in flux, always changing and never the same, a theme we see in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This scared the crap out of me in high school. I so badly desired that things remain the same, as it made me feel secure. I wanted the same friends, the same house and neighbors/neighborhood, the same pets, and the same coaches/pastors/and other authority figures. It really deeply bothered me when, one by one, these things changed, as they always do. I think that life, assisted by various principles I’ve been learning in school, has been teaching me the importance of growing comfortable despite the reality that things are constantly in flux; learning to embrace the new and unknown as an exciting adventure and opportunity for new growth rather than greeting the new things life brings begrudgingly and with hostility.