Loving the Ugly

Abandoned church, Chicago

It’s been said that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Sounds nice, but what does it actually mean? To me, it represents the central place of imperfection in all spiritual practice. It moves us to love the imperfect, because nothing on earth was made with straight lines. If we didn’t love that which was imperfect, then love wouldn’t be love in its fullest sense. Since to love the perfect and the beautiful and the innocent is easy. To love that which returns your love; that, too, is easy. Yet to love something because it’s going to love you back love? To love it so that it will love you in return? That’s just a form of payment, a barter, a negotiation.

Love only reveals its greatness to itself through its profound unselfishness. It loves that which seems unlovable. It loves the ugly and embraces what we humans regard as sinner and as evil. Love reveals its true nature by loving that which doesn’t love it back, by giving to those who can’t or won’t return its unconditional generosity. It’s to kiss the frog even though it won’t become a prince.

To be a spiritual being and have a human experience is to jacket the divine in fallenness. It means that you watch someone stumble down your street at night in drunkenness, and when you stop to offer them help, they yell Fuck you!  And then you help them home anyway, and put them to bed in your own home, because maybe she’s your daughter. It’s to work on a road crew and lay asphalt day after day for 20 years, and to wonder: Is this what my life is? But then to glance up at the mountains beside the road, dressed in new snow.

To be a spiritual being and have a human experience is to come to know that inside the mundane is wrapped a miracle, and your job is to unpeel its skin. It’s to know that the sacred embraces the profane and is contained within it. It’s to pass judgment on no one. And when you do anyway, it’s to come to know that what you see in the eyes of another, be it good or bad in your own sight, is always only a reflection of your divine self. And the exception you want to make? The one you want to see as truly repugnant who deserves your scorn? You won’t see heaven until you see their innocence. For the two are the same.

© 2022 by Michael C. Just

Mike’s novel, The Dirt: The Journey of a Mystic Cowboy, is available in softcover or eBook formats through Amazon.

You can purchase the book through this website. Or go straight to amazon at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+dirt+journey+of+a+mystic+cowboy&crid=1S40Q4BXSUWJ6&sprefix=the+dirt%3A+journey+of+a+m%2Caps%2C180&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_23

Mike’s other titles, including The Crippy, The Mind Altar, and Canyon Calls, are available through this website or through Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002

Four of his short stories have recently been published online:

Lies, Ltd. has been published by The Mystery Tribune @ Lies, Ltd.: Literary Short Fiction by Michael C. Just (mysterytribune.com)

The Obligate Carnivore has been published by the Scarlet Leaf Review @ Category: MICHAEL JUST – SCARLET LEAF REVIEW

I See You, Too has been published by the 96th of October @ I See You, Too – 96th of October

Offload, a short story about a man who can heal any disease, is now live and can be read at The Worlds Within at Offload – The Worlds Within