{"id":3963,"date":"2018-04-24T14:55:34","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T20:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/?p=3963"},"modified":"2018-05-10T21:20:49","modified_gmt":"2018-05-11T03:20:49","slug":"sacred-house-of-the-human-spirit-the-meaning-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/2018\/04\/sacred-house-of-the-human-spirit-the-meaning-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacred House of the Human Spirit & the Meaning of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Shiprock, New Mexico, on the Navajo Reservation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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She drove him six hours into a small mining town in eastern Nevada, near the Utah border. During the drive he told her what had happened. She listened intently but did not speak. A green-colored half moon hung low in the sky, the horizon beneath it a band of xanthic light which glowed like something prehistoric.<\/p>\n

They drove in silence for a long time, and then he said something to her that she thought very strange and poignant, something which afterward she\u2019d think a lot about, and which she\u2019d never forget:<\/p>\n

\u201cWork,\u201d he said, \u201cwhat you do, the movements of your body guided by your brain — that is the meaning of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

She looked at him quizzically.<\/p>\n

He told her that there\u2019s nothing more important in life than how you work — whatever that work may be. The motions and movement of your body, he said, as dictated by your brain. He said that human ability is rooted in the human brain, and that whatever else you are and whatever else you become, it grows from this foundation. He said that nothing more fundamental than work is required for the life you want for yourself, and that no matter what moral code anyone tries to force upon you, whether secular or non-secular, the final measure of value is in the work. He told her that everything else you\u2019ll hear is a swindle, and that competence is the only ethical code you\u2019ll ever need — that anyone will ever need.<\/p>\n

She listened closely but did not reply to any of this.<\/p>\n

A long silence ensued.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the sacred house of the human spirit, each of us dwells alone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere did you hear that?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething I once read, long ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it true?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

She glanced over at him but said nothing, and after that they rode in silence the rest of the way, down the long lonely road, the moon above like a giant squeeze of lime among stars winking with a cold and icy light. At last they came to the outskirts of a town she\u2019d never been to, and he got out of her car and stared at her through the open window but did not speak. Then he said goodbye.
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__________________________________________________
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This is excerpted from my latest novel: Reservation Trash<\/a>, which for the next five days is free on Kindle. Download it<\/a> and I\u2019m eternally grateful.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the story of a young Navajo runaway named Kristy Reed, his monomanaical pursuit of life, happiness, and the sub-four-minute mile, which for him represents freedom and human ability. It\u2019s my seventh published book?–?but it\u2019s the one I\u2019m most pleased with … by far.<\/I>
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She drove him six hours into a small mining town in eastern Nevada, near the Utah border. During the drive he told her what had happened. She listened intently but did not speak. A green-colored half moon hung low in the sky, the horizon beneath it a band of xanthic light which glowed like something … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Sacred House of the Human Spirit & the Meaning of Life”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[353],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3963"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4128,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3963\/revisions\/4128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}