Raven : The Desert Dwellers

This is a Raven. I saw him recently in the West Texas desert. Driving across the plain, I was struck - almost palpably - by the utter emptiness and expanse. It well exceeded a wide vista or a far horizon; it was an almost suffocating void, a space that would cripple an agoraphobe. The early morning light created an undifferentiated glow. The road, ostensibly a landmark, disappeared into a point. But then the raven. The raven - coal-black, flying close, and croaking his presence - created an anchor, a psychological handhold to grasp. There was something here, some way to establish a reference point. It was profoundly grounding.

The Israelites were in Egypt for 210 years. During this span, they went from Pharaoh’s honored guests to persecuted minority. “Egypt,” in Hebrew “Mitzrayim,” literally means “narrow place.” The Israelites’ lives certainly constricted over time. The generation who left fled into the desert’s trackless wastes. The Sin of the Spies revealed this cohort of former slaves was ill-equipped for the new challenges of living as a free people in their own land. The forty years’ wandering can be seen less as a punishment, and more compassionately, as a recognition that liberty’s psychological requirements are beyond a slave’s capability. Open freedom presents its own distinct challenges.

Our modern era offers an unprecedented degree of freedom. That is both our time’s greatest gift and greatest challenge. Freedom creates opportunities for expression, observance, and community. Freedom, though, can also deprive us of context, guidance, and belonging. There is a subtle tension between the endlessly open plain and the aimlessness of not knowing where to go. Our tradition offers pathways for navigating ill-defined and limitless spaces. We can freely engage in productive and positive activities, knowing that our ends reflect shared goals Divinely inspired. My Raven gave me a focal point that let me make sense of my desert journey; my devotion to service does the same in my daily trek.