Inside looking out: Looking through a stained-glass window

My friend Joe got me to thinking how we can look at the same thing from two perspectives and arrive at different understandings.

If you look at a church’s stained-glass window from the outside, you see pieces of colored panes soldered together to form a window.

But when you look at the same piece from the inside, the stained-glass is a beautiful expression of spiritual faith.

Two different travel routes to the same destination have the stained-glass effect. I drive to New Jersey to visit family. On my return trip, I can travel Route 248 from Phillipsburg to Jim Thorpe or I can take Route 78 to the Pennsylvania Turnpike to Route 903. The latter is much quicker.

I can drive higher speeds, but there is often a trade-off. Accidents, work zones and anxiety caused by drivers who weave in and out of lanes can cause stress before I get back.

Driving 248 is longer and slower and for those who feel a need to be in a hurry, you risk creeping behind a farm tractor or a little old lady coming back from the general store.

Along this route, however, your eyes delight in the rolling countryside dotted with farm houses and silos. A special treat are the horses swinging their tails against an afternoon breeze or a family of cows grazing in the grass.

You return refreshed and ready to take on the day or night. If you exchange words with a turnpike driver who never pedals under 80, he’ll brag about getting to where you got in 40 minutes less time. What he won’t tell you is that his wife yelled at him for driving too fast and tailgating in the left lane.

Much of what we do in life is a process or a journey to get to a physical or an emotional somewhere. Joe talks about music. Whether it’s rock or rap or blues or jazz, we listen because the sounds and the words take us “somewhere” we want to be. A piano sonata brings peace. Heavy metal is an outlet for anger. Classic rock inspires memories of our youth. Ballads help us fall in love. Does it matter if it’s Michael Buble, Taylor Swift, Eminem or AC/DC who sings to our souls?

Millions of people believe in God, but not from the same faith. We pray to the Catholic God, the Hebrew God, the Evangelical God. Whether a spiritual essence is found in a book, in a building, or in a forest, we worship a creator.

We vote Republican. We’re registered Democrats. Some do not affiliate with either party. The goal of politics is to help our country grow and prosper. Yet we draw lines in the sand and the ideal of coming together for the good of everyone is polarized by party line platforms.

We play on different teams with the same goal to win the game, but there again, coaches plan different strategies to achieve victory.

You are a vegetarian. I’m a meat eater. We both enjoy our food.

Joe points out that human behavior like laughter is common to us all. “With laughter a smile is automatically expressed upon all our faces. It’s a feeling of happiness and having a good time. The roar of laughter in a group brings everyone together, as even the small children pick up on the fun and begin to laugh too. … Each laugh is very unique like a fingerprint. What a wonderful sound.”

Our laughter is “unique like a fingerprint,” but the reasons we laugh are universal. Something is funny we laugh. Something makes us happy, we laugh. We even laugh to chase away fear. The “we” is all of us, no matter the color, the culture or the gender.

Joe writes about something else that is common to all. “Death is a fact. Animals die, and so do men, but the difference is that men know they “must” die. By that very fact, we men surmount death, we get above it, we transcend it, look at it, survey it, and thus stand outside it.

“The modern man seeks to forget about death altogether or — if he cannot do that — to conceal it, to block from sight, to disguise it. He feels awkward in the presence of death, does not know how to console or what to say … life is like a match which has been struck and will burn for a moment and then cease to exist. …”

William Cullen Bryant’s poem, “Thanatopsis” reminds us that death is the great equalizer for the wealthy or the poor, the young or the old.

“Thou shalt lie down with patriarchs of the infant world — with kings, the powerful of the earth — the wise, the good, fair forms and hoary seers of ages past, all in one mighty sepulchre.”

Once again, the means to an end may be different, but literally the “end” happens to everyone. Since we all will die, we all have a life to live, too.

Joe writes, “Everyone in the world is looking for certitude, peace of soul, and freedom of spirit.”

Perhaps the human race can acquire these virtues if we come together and stand inside looking out through the stained-glass window.

Rich Strack can be reached at katehep11@gmail.com.