Wrinkles in Time
Rev. Holly Baylies
UU Church of Wakefield
May 15, 2005

Anna M. Russomano, former Minister/ Administrator of the Church of the Larger Fellowship in Boston, by way of their monthly publication, “The Quest”, introduced me to the tesseract. A tesseract, as described in the book "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeline L'Engle is a form of travel in the 5th dimension, disputes the concept that the only way to reach the shortest distance between two points is to follow a straight line.

She says, “ A tesseract, is a wrinkle in space which allows travelers to skip over parts of a terrain they don't feel like covering." She neatly illustrates her point by suspending a string between both hands, taut, which allows an ant to cross from one hand to the other. She then brings her hands together, the string drops in a loop and the ant passes easily from one fingertip to the other in a much shorter time period. Thus the discovery of the tesseract, the shortest distance between two points, by bypassing the former obvious pathway.

How inviting a concept, imagine being able to skip over the traumatic, boring and time wasting tasks we all must perform everyday and just be able to get on with the important parts.

I have talked with many people recently, who have expressed feelings of frustration and ambivalence, that their true mission in life, their reason for being, remains an ambiguous mystery, has eluded them and therefore remains unfulfilled. It has been described as a disquieting, persistent sensation that gnaws at the sub· conscious or the soul. I've heard, “I’m doing everything I can, I still have that feeling that there is something missing in my life, something else besides the drudgery of getting through each day hoping to reach a time in life when it all gets easier. 

Certainly a tesseract in this case would be most useful. A way to skip into the future, over the mistakes the worries and the “dailyness” of pursuing that imagines time that has yet to arrive as the one place in life we were meant to be.

The Buddhists have a name for that process of finding ourselves, Dukkah, and~ it means suffering. True relevance, to the Buddhist is found in the ordinary and transient. Nothing remains the same, ever, life is impermanent, all creatures suffer and fulfillment arrives only if we live fully in each moment. Therefore they immerse themselves, in every second of time, seeing a value to life, moment by moment that is never dismissed, as just another unpleasant event to be endured. Westerners are not good at suffering, we see it as a curse, a punishment, something to be avoided at all costs. Buddhists have an interesting viewpoint around coping with the mundane and commonplace tasks of life, that create, Dukka-suffering. They call it  mindfulness. They believe that the message of existence lies in the experience of the moment no matter how difficult or commonplace. Each task contains a lesson that we can choose to learn from, as unique to our understanding and there are no shortcuts!
Instead, We" pursue the" tesseract, the short cut, to get from point A to 
point B as rapidly as possible, to by pass the ripples of the ordinary and the insignificant, to hopefully avoid any discomfort or wasted time.
 
In an article in the Ministers Newsletter,The Rev. Aaron Payson relates this Jewish Parable: 

A strip of new linen lying upon the table was very proud of its beauty and fine 'quality. "What a handsome garment I will make!"  it exclaimed vaingloriously. Suddenly, the strip of linen noticed a soiled, well~worn cloak that had been thrown carelessly into a corner. Scornfully, the new linen said to the old cloak, "Woe to you, you hideous old rag! What a drab appearance you make!"

Several days passed, and the owner of the new linen sewed himself a garment from it. Nonetheless, when he went out upon the street, he put on his old cloak over it. When the new garment recognized the old cloak, it was filled with resentment. "How did you suddenly become so important as to be above me?” it inquired. The old cloak answered: "First they brought me to be laundered. They dealt me heavy blows with paddles until they beat the dust, the sand, and the mud out of me. When they had finished, I said to myself: 'It certainly was worth all that pain to become clean again! Just look at me! Don't I look better and handsomer than before?' And, as I was thinking thus, they threw me into a kettle of hot water, and after that into a kettle of tepid water. They washed, rinsed, dried, and pressed me. And, suddenly, I saw that I had been transformed into a handsome garment! I then realized that before one can be elevated, one must first suffer.”

 Rev Payson continued:

Sometimes I feel like the garment maker, armed with the hottest new management theories and coolest new praxis, striving to elevate old garments" (read seasoned Unitarian Universalists) more-often than not, feeling like a source of suffering where change is concerned. Some days I am the garment and feel as if the dust, sand, mud, and other such sediment has been beaten out of me. Furthermore, I am, all too often, privy to stirrings among the masses that polarize old and new garments (members, ways of doing things, etc.) and I  wonder if they'll  ever figure out that ultimately, we're all pieces of the same quilt. 

Tesseracts, in our thinking, may help us endure the trivial by mentally skipping past the moment in pursuit of that greater mission. When we are unclear about that mission, a tremendous amount of time can pass in which we have endured unhappily rather than experienced life for what it might actually teach us about who we are meant to be. It can also teach us, that if all we seek are shortcuts, then maybe we are being mindful of all the wrong things.

The practice of Mindfulness, the awareness and recognition of and acceptance that suffering, impermanence and sometimes confusion, are conditions of living we may have struggled to delete from our lives rather than accept as a part of our strength and wisdom that can ultimately lead to a right course of action. 

We are not all Buddhists nor are we ants on a string. We are a culture that measures our wrinkles in time by results, by wealth, fame and academic degrees, the number of children we have, our size and shape, our success in the public eye and the talents we market that are productive and lucrative. From our earliest years we have been measured by this thing called II potential". And we are prodded and co-erced to live up to it, academically, socially and even spiritually. Some of us suffer in its shadow for many years.
I know a man in his 80s who was my mentor when I ran into trouble with a carpentry project. There is not problem he couldn’t  solve. He retired  20 years ago as a railroad conductor for the Boston and Maine railroad and has since passed away.

Everyone bugged him to go into finish carpentry and leave the railroad. He said to me one day, "I could never make a living at carpentry, I love it too much. What I make I choose to make, and each piece is unique and different never the same.

He was a good conductor, a bachelor but terrific with children. Some might say he didn’t live up to his potential, that he wasted his time, happily puttering for others. Many school groups headed for a field trip, on the train asked for him because he was kind and answered all their questions.
However, his carpentry in his time off, was also not for sale, he gave it away, as he did his caring for each child he led into North Station 

He was mindful of their time with him, as mundane as it may have seemed to others, and treasured his job as he did his talent for turning a piece of scrap into something beautiful. He taught me that there are no short cuts in carpentry that will lead to a beautifully finished piece…Just as there are no shortcuts in life that will lead us to our true and honest selves.

I am also reminded of one Boston marathon runner named Rosie Ruiz. As you may recall, she won the race, but by taking the shortest route possible, and by bypassing the course in the end it she was the real looser. Part of the satisfaction of winning or even finishing such a race is not only the challenge of running but the obstacles encountered that make crossing the finish line so rewarding. It doesn't matter whether it's a marathon or the first few wobbly steps across a room, it's the experience of the journey that makes the accomplishment so important.

How interesting that we struggle so hard to gather those roadside savoring life experiences along the way! How can we when all that we are taught about living, working and even playing is rooted in speed, getting there quickly and getting things done and over with just to face the next task.

I have a friend who once attempted to inflate a child's swimming pool with an air compressor. The warning on the box specifically read, "Do Not Use Commercial Compressors" but, she felt the enclosed pump was just too small and she didn't have time. She was due at work in 15 minutes and this would take 20 minutes, if she used the enclosed pump. Well with 8 kids expected for her child's birthday party she chose the shortest route. She hooked up the compressor and 10 and behold it was inflated in 28 seconds and in the 29th second, the little rubber pool blew up in her face! It took her an hour to clean up the mess and she was still late for work and had no pool for her child’s promised pool party.

That's a silly example but how often have we all found ourselves short of time, looking for shortcuts and found that they were not the time savers we expected and hoped for. The Western World is frantic for the perfection of the tesseract.

The more we feel the need to bypass events in our lives the more we ask, "What the hell are we doing here?" or "what is my Calling." "How will I know when I have arrived, happily doing what I was meant to do and be for the rest of my life?" Anna Russomano suggests that it is not necessarily the process of arriving, but rather the trip itself. She says, "If we cannot be present and calm and mindful while performing the tasks of our everyday life--while washing dishes, baking bread, or scooping cat litter; while at the Laundromat, or stuck in traffic--if we cannot be present now, how can we save up our attention and care for the important things? Presence cannot be hoarded. It must be practiced-given away-to be kept."

She concludes:

" If we can't be mindful while doing something so ordinary as washing the dishes-while doing something so ordinary as eating a tangerine-while doing something so ordinary as  drinking tea-if we can't be mindful of simple things, maybe we are incapable of actually living one minute of life ... she goes on .. There is such a thing as a tesseract. And it is very seductive. You could call it "modern life' You could call it the ' fast lane,' you could even call it "hell." The Universalists taught that hell isn't everlasting punishment. But maybe hell is eternal haste. Maybe it's traveling through heaven on the Concorde-so fast, so direct, so efficient-that we miss the scenery, that we scoff at the idea of heaven while we poke at the dinner tray and fidget with the muzak on the earphone. Heaven? I passed through there once on the way to London. Why do you ask?" 

 The choice to be fully present in each moment is a choice to realize the miracle of life in each moment. That is living 

That is the heaven we seek. 

So be it.  Amen.