Lucid

Sometimes as I scan across a printed piece searching for daily inspiration I come upon words that almost immediately drive me from that page. Today in one sentence I saw these together, opaque and lucid. Opaque and lucid are the words of eggheads, of intellectuals of people speaking to the rarified group that is comprised of philosophers and esoteric thinkers far beyond my pay grade.

Ordinarily I have no time for these words. When I see them conjoined I hit the next item listed under my Google search for inspiration. (Of course I use Google to search for inspiration quotes. Just type in “how to find joy on a cloudy day” and see what comes up.) While I am not in the position to bake my blues away today as item number 7 on the list urged I did find out how to impart happiness to kids locked away in a vacation cottage during a deluge.

Stop digressing; today instead I decided I would stick with the author who was throwing these words about. However before I moved on reading the piece I would have to be precise in my understanding of what he meant by these words. Thus I typed each of the words into a Word 2003 document, right clicked and opted for “Look up”. This is what I found:

• Opaque – Impervious to light; obscure and unintelligible.

• Lucid – shinning with emission of light; rational and clearly understood if only for a moment between periods of delirium.

Pretty powerful words these two intellectual staples. Back I went to the article. The author of the piece I was reading talked about how passion, need, hatred, entrenchment in an idea all acted upon our souls negatively robbing us of lucidity. He also implied that unless we struggle to be lucid we were losing something of our soul and we jeopardizing our connection with the divine. Every idea must be weighed. Every choice considered.

Thinking on it I believe that being lucid has its costs. Transparently expressing the thoughts we have can isolate us and expose us. This nakedness of idea can show us and what we value to be at the edge of the herd. Frank candor might even expose significant shortcomings in our thinking process or our moral foundations. This is pretty scary stuff without a doubt. But it does give use integrity and it can lead us to our own moral corrections.

If we quit the struggle to be lucid and engaged we allow ignorance to rule. Methinks obscurity and unintelligibility are the bane of a complete soul. If we don’t examine constantly and continually who and what we are, what we value and what actions we need to take we are just flotsam in this river of life. Personally I don’t believe we live our lives without purpose, I don’t believe it is all for nothing. We need to make each of our numbered breaths count.