I went to an all-boys high school (class of 72) run by the Xaverian Brothers. We all wore sport coats and ties every day. One of the classes we had to take was Religion.
One day in our Sophomore religion class, Brother Simeon told us that if the Catholic Church were to ban the Sacrament of Marriage the entire human race would die out in a generation.
You can imagine the reaction of 30 immature teenagers in an all-boys private Catholic High School. Brother Simeon had absolute faith in the power and teachings of the Catholic Church. As a teenager I wondered how anyone could be so naive as to not question their beliefs, especially something so obvious as Brother Simeon asserted. But he got a bunch of Catholic school teenage boys to talk about religious faith better than any clickbait on the internet could. His faith was unshakable no matter what questions we asked or sophomoric comments we made.
Now I am over 70. I remember that absolute faith he had when I was in high school. I realize there is very little in which I have absolute faith. Everything I thought I knew as a teenager and a young man was wrong. My preconceived notions about life, death, success, love, relationships, every plan I made and insight I thought I had didn’t work.
Remember the phrase, “if you build a better mousetrap the world will beat a path to your door”? When I first started out as a musician, I waited for people to call me. I starved! I had to unlearn and relearn the concept of entertainment. I originally thought being an “entertainer” was pandering and compromising on trying to be an artist. I had to relearn and embrace the idea that entertainment is taking what you love and making it accessible to others.
I had to learn to work on being active instead of passive. I had to learn to unlearn and then relearn everything as I tried to figure out how to survive. I had to try to build a faith in myself and in others.
I was so naïve or maybe arrogant as a teenager and young adult.
This process of unlearning and learning was continually repeated as I aged, gained more experience, and restarted careers.
I learned that I am a renter. (We all are.) My lifetime here is finite not infinite.
I learned that I need to actively cherish what has been given to me every day. I recognize that any day I forget to actively honor the people in my life, I disappoint or hurt the people I care about.
I learned I should never take for granted the faith, love and trust that is given to me every day.
And isn’t that the point of having absolute faith?