The Golden Calf

Read a few short articles recently. One of them was about the 6 habits. Six.
I realised that life could have been so much sweeter if only people could grow both in stature and in wisdom proportionately. Ironical but it is true, I have seen an inverse relationship between one's status and one's ability to be cool (which, in my opinion, is in some way related to wisdom). Maybe there is no actual means of measuring one's level of wisdom except by one's own ability to respond rationally to external stimulus. Anyway ... life must move on. There is really very little time left for happiness.

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I remember that as soon as the self-exiled Israelites reached the safety on the other side of the Red Sea, they very quickly erected this huge Golden Calf. Maybe they could not hear God speaking. Maybe they did not happened to be at the front-line watching how God parted the sea. Or maybe as soon as the miracle was over, they were no longer sure whether it was God or Moses. After all, they could not recognise God's Hand at work, except for Mose having lifted up the staff and the sea parted.

As soon as their leader left them temporarily and went up Mt Sinai, there sprouted forth many who claimed to "know what's next". Not surprisingly, this seemed to have endowed them with so much power in return in forms of loyal followers. Humans craved for directions, you see. They had always been looking around for a leader who could lead them. Someone strong. Someone highly visible. Maybe someone who seemed to know a lot more. It could have been easy for the one who could speak louder than anybody else. But Moses was not good at public speaking. They would have easily fallen for anyone who was better a bragging.

In our human lives today, there's this human-installed "golden calf" again.. This symbol of power and control. Wonder why one would crave so much for it. There's his particular deep-seated need to dominate, and to subdue everyone else. or build for himself a sort of a pseudo-empire (or pseudo-harlem, if mostly filled by female followers).