Our youngest grandson is potty-training.  Out of nappies and into hope.  Yesterday his “earlier phase” resurfaced.  Nana spotted the sequence and went for hope and a potty.  Our grandson went for habit and poo all down his legs.  It got messy.

But he hadn’t done anything wrong.  And our biggest challenge was keeping it all “normal and safe”.  Avoiding that “yeuch and dirty” teaching that is so easily learned.   And which seems impossible to not teach – “toilet humour” still means “yeuch humour”.

Yet each has to urinate.  Each has to defecate.  Each must or we fall ill.  Our bodies are designed to extract goodness and flush toxic.  Our bodies are designed for balance.

I love watching the documentaries on health supplements.  How the body has to cope with this inrush of “unnatural goodness”.  Has to work to restore chemical balance.  Which means some very expensive urine and faeces.    

“(Thus he declared all foods clean.)”

Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, “Then do you also fail to understand?   Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?”  (Thus he declared all foods clean.)   And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles.   For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.   All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”  Mark 7:14-23

Whether or not I believe the bible to be inerrant and infallible is no longer relevant.  I read these verses and take from them this:

I have a body and mind developed over centuries to cope beautifully with living.  I have a body that will cope day-after-day with my personal preferences, my personal brainwashing, my personal laziness – and day-after-day restore a chemical balance.  I have a mind that can absorb so much information yet sift out so much of others personal preferences and personal brainwashing and maintain an intuitive balance.   A “goodness”.  A “selflessness”.  A care for others.  A love for self and others.  My body will flush “whatever goes into a person from outside … “since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer” unless …  Just as my mind will flush “fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly” unless …

Unless I stuff my body with so much I will harm it and myself.  Unless I hold so much crap that I harm me and you.  Unless … unless …

Unless I allow.

Added sugars, added fats, added chemicals I cannot even pronounce.  They taste good.  They are easy on the senses.  Added messages using “universals”, added beliefs dressed up as facts, added communication techniques I cannot even spot.  They sound and look good.  They are easy on instant gratification.

And here is one who says bollocks!  One who says each of us has been designed for balance – self-sustaining balance.   A body and mind able to flush the crap and extract the good stuff.

And science does its best.  And religion does its best.  And culture does its best.  And history forgets.  And “best” becomes “must”.   And “must” becomes “us and them”.  And then balance is lost and imbalance wins.

I don’t care whether you believe the bible to be true or false.  I don’t care whether you think its words good or evil.  I don’t care whether you think me one of you or one of them.  I seek balance of body and mind.  To see goodness in all and flush out my crap (and yours) – my bias (and yours) – my brainwashing (and yours).  To fear neither goodness or toxins.

Thus I declare all good.

And trust more and more in my body and mind and heart.  To fear neither goodness or toxins.

And if I learn that from the bible and the words of a man called Jesus –

Will you flush out your crap as to what that – what I – might actually mean?

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