My current favorite poem by Marie Howe

MAGDALENE–THE SEVEN DEVILS

by Marie Howe

“Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven devils had been cast out” —Luke 8:2.

The first was that I was very busy.

The second — I was different from you: whatever happened to you could not happen to me, not like that.

The third — I worried.

The fourth – envy, disguised as compassion.

The fifth was that I refused to consider the quality of life of the aphid,

The aphid disgusted me. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

The mosquito too – its face. And the ant – its bifurcated body.

Ok the first was that I was so busy.

The second that I might make the wrong choice,

because I had decided to take that plane that day,

that flight, before noon, so as to arrive early

and, I shouldn’t have wanted that.

The third was that if I walked past the certain place on the street

the house would blow up.

The fourth was that I was made of guts and blood with a thin layer of skin

lightly thrown over the whole thing.

The fifth was that the dead seemed more alive to me than the living

The sixth — if I touched my right arm I had to touch my left arm, and if I touched the left arm a little harder than I’d first touched the right then I had to retouch the left and then touch the right again so it would be even.

The seventh — I knew I was breathing the expelled breath of everything that was alive and I couldn’t stand it,

I wanted a sieve, a mask, a, I hate this word – cheesecloth –

to breath through that would trap it — whatever was inside everyone else that

entered me when I breathed in

No. That was the first one.

The second was that I was so busy. I had no time. How had this happened? How had our lives gotten like this?

The third was that I couldn’t eat food if I really saw it – distinct, separate from me in a bowl or on a plate.

Ok. The first was that I could never get to the end of the list.

The second was that the laundry was never finally done.

The third was that no one knew me, although they thought they did.

And that if people thought of me as little as I thought of them then what was

love?

Someone using you as a co-ordinate to situate himself on earth.

The fourth was I didn’t belong to anyone. I wouldn’t allow myself to belong

to anyone.

Historians would assume my sin was sexual.

The fifth was that I knew none of us could ever know what we didn’t know.

The sixth was that I projected onto others what I myself was feeling.

The seventh was the way my mother looked when she was dying.

The sound she made — the gurgling sound — so loud we had to speak louder to hear each other over it.

And that I couldn’t stop hearing it–years later –

grocery shopping, crossing the street –

No, not the sound – it was her body’s hunger

finally evident.–what our mother had hidden all her life.

For months I dreamt of knucklebones and roots,

the slabs of sidewalk pushed up like crooked teeth by what grew underneath.

The underneath —that was the first devil. It was always with me.

And that I didn’t think you— if I told you – would understand any of this -

My Favorite Teaching

Nagarjuna's String of Precious Jewels

I’ll tell you briefly the fine qualities of those

on the path of compassion:

giving and ethics, patience and effort,

concentration, wisdom, compassion and such.

Giving is giving away what you have,

and ethics is doing good to others.

Patience is giving up feelings of anger,

and effort is joy that increases all good.

Concentration’s one-pointed, free of bad thoughts,

and wisdom decides what truth really is.

Compassion’s a kind of high intelligence,

mixed deep with a love for all living kind.

Giving brings wealth, a good world comes from ethics,

patience brings beauty, eminence comes from effort.

Concentration brings peace, and from wisdom comes freedom,

compassion achieves everything we all wish for.

A person who takes all seven of these and

perfects them together will reach that place

of inconceivable knowledge, no less than

the world’s protector.

The Whistleblower's Moral Span

I have heard pundits bemoan that in this Snowden Prism case, he, rather than the material he released becomes too much of the story. For me, though, the interesting question is not about what he made public, but WHY? I think some understanding of who he is and why he did it helps us to evaluate how to think about this act.

To most, it would seem obvious that his morality is non- conventional. Conventional  morality would say that this act is against the law, so it is immoral to do it. Conventional morality is focused on the individual's place in societal norms. Those who describe him as a High School dropout, an ignoramus, (how could Booz have hired this guy?) seem pretty clearly to view him as backward, perhaps unable to evaluate the consequences of his actions, motivated by some need for individual glory. 

There is another option, however. His may be a Post-Conventional morality, which is driven by a higher and deeper sense of morality which differentiates from the societal, and reintegrates into a larger system of meaning.  Reports from those who actually spoke with him about the leak suggest a very thoughtful deliberative man who was very careful about what he chose to release an what he didn't. 

Hard to know, though, from limited information.... What is fascinating, and what is important to know, I think, is how this man thought about what he was doing. What is clear, though, is that a post-conventional morality runs ahead of the societal morality under which this man and other Whistleblowers will be tried. How do we evaluate one's motives, and how are these motives able to affect the meting out of justice?