Posted by Todd on April 07, 2001 at 08:04:58:
In Reply to: Re: The Huna Heiau's Holidays... What judgements? posted by Martyn Caruthers on April 06, 2001 at 16:27:01:
I think I understand both the roots of Joel's query (though I don't favor its rudeness), and Lani's defensiveness. At the risk of being too bold in speaking for someone else - please allow me to put a few thoughts here for consideration, affirmation, or dispute.
I gather from both Joel's use of the English language and his use of American slang (as in "blew his brains out") that he is American, so I am (perhaps rashly) striding forward to place his inquiry within an American philosophical framework. Writing as an American myself (and a "newbie" to much that is Huna), I have to admit experiencing a degree of shock at learning from Joel's message that Max Freedom Long took his own life. Lani's response makes it clear that at least a part of the reason for Max's choice was his failure to "alter Huna from the HRA into an effective FHF" (and my apologies here for being too new to all this to know what the FHF was intended to be). When you bounce the suicide of a spiritual leader due to a failed endeavor against one of the more admirable of American values - that being persistence in the face of adversity - a paradox begins to surface. Why would someone who spent his life researching and disseminating information promising to help us become wiser, more effective, and more peaceful human beings at some point just totally give up? Why didn't his beliefs lend him the faith, understanding, and courage to persevere? It may be an unfair question, and perhaps there is even a good answer - but there it hangs. And I think that is the question that is buried somewhere beneath Joel's somewhat caustic challenge.
Now, that addresses the portion of what Joel communicated overtly in his question. His was a double message, though; in addition to his explicit question, Joel delivered an implicit insult in his phrasing of it. The tone of Joel's question carries the message " . . . and isn't anyone who would follow a weak, suicidal loser like Max Freedom Long a blind fool not to see that he couldn't even help himself with his own teachings?" This is not an honest query but a pointed insult, pure and simple, and to my mind isn't called for. Not even the people closest to a person who takes his/her own life usually understand completely why he/she does so, and certainly it's next to impossible for those of us who know of MFL only through the printed word to understand his thoughts and feelings before he died. Having a passing acquaintance with some who have either considered or attempted to take their own lives, I know it isn't accurate to say that a suicidal human must be weak, despondent, or spiritually empty - though they may of course be any of those things. Lani did know Max personally, and quite likely possesses a sense of personal affection in addition to his devotion to Max's teachings; so, a certain amount of defensiveness on Lani's part, while maybe not saintly, is certainly understandable.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on this whole affair. If I've seriously misrepresented anyone, I apologize, but I hope this provides something helpful to think about.
Aloha,
Todd