BAPAKYAL

To understand BAPAKYAL, we need to take another brief trip into the WayBack machine here - actually a couple. But let us start by jumping back to the turn of the millennium around 2000. Won't be the favorite chuck of time for me were I ever to write my memoir - tiny chapter. Marriage falling apart, teaching primarily online generating money for the department, but losing face time with students and gaining no recognition from my colleagues who were unaware of the real benefits they were reaping from my distance learning endeavors. Pretty blah all around.

Throughout, I had been talking with a friend over in media services. Those are the people who functioned as sort of a TV station for the university, so with my tech-heavy involvement I had come to know them pretty well. Anyhow this woman seemed pretty well grounded in life in general - her own solid relationship argued for that. So we chatted back and forth, largely online as Media Services was over on another part of campus. Well, one day she signed her email BAPAKYAL. And, no, I had no idea what it meant.  So I wisely responded: "Huh?" She explained that it meant "BeAtPeaceAndKnowYouAreLoved - BAPAKYAL." Well, obviously, So, this was her way of telling me "Stop feeling sorry for yourself. There are people who care about you. Move on." It was very helpful in my doing just that.

I think about that sig a lot these days when the would seems to be so devoid of love. And here we have to hop back into the WayBack machine. Here we go:

Settings: Fall of 1968.

Location: Kalamazoo College. Dr.Poggi's classroom; Greek 1.

Topic: Love.

So here we have a classroom full of college students and the topic is going to be love. The hormones are cranked on high, until Dr. Poggi begins:

"Today we are going to talk about the two forms of love discussed in the plays you will be translating: Eros and agape. [a few snickers from the class].

Poggi continues: "Eros and Agape are two distinct types of love in Greek philosophy and theology. Eros is passionate, romantic, or sexual love, often characterized by desire and possession. [A few more snickers.] Agape is selfless, unconditional, and sacrificial love, frequently identified as the highest, spiritual form of love and associated with God's love for humanity. 

So let us step outside the WayBack machine and look around at today's reality. I cannot recall a time in my life when THE WORLD is seeming to spiral so out of control. The post on The Decade of Dementia laid out the primary reasons I can no longer look to my country as a voice of reason on the global stage - sadly quite the opposite. "Bombing anyone back to the stone age!" used to be a phrase from sci-fi films coming out of the mouths on maniacal villains, before the hero stepped in to save the world. 

But craziness is not a local issue. The World Population Review lists these countries as being currently at war - the list is a bit dated. [The broken images are the flags of the various countries - sorry about that glitch]

	Iraq	Terrorist Insurgency/Political Unrest
	Nigeria	Terrorist Insurgency
	Bangladesh	Terrorist Insurgency
	DR Congo	Terrorist Insurgency
	Iran	Terrorist Insurgency
	Tanzania	Terrorist Insurgency
	Thailand	Terrorist Insurgency
	Uganda	Terrorist Insurgency
	Algeria	Terrorist Insurgency
	Angola	Terrorist Insurgency
	Morocco	Terrorist Insurgency
	Ivory Coast	Terrorist Insurgency
	Cameroon	Terrorist Insurgency
	Niger	Terrorist Insurgency
	Mali	Terrorist Insurgency
	Burkina Faso	Terrorist Insurgency
	Chad	Terrorist Insurgency
	Benin	Terrorist Insurgency
	Rwanda	Terrorist Insurgency
	Tunisia	Terrorist Insurgency
	Togo	Terrorist Insurgency
	Libya	Terrorist Insurgency
	Russia	Russo-Ukrainian War
	Ukraine	Russo-Ukrainian War
	Israel	Israel-Palestine War
	Palestine	Israel-Palestine War
	South Sudan	Ethnic violence
	Mexico	Drug War
	Afghanistan	Civil War/Terrorist Insurgency
	Haiti	Civil War/Gang War
	Colombia	Civil War/Drug War
	Ecuador	Civil War/Drug War
	Ethiopia	Civil War
	Myanmar	Civil War
	Sudan	Civil War
	Yemen	Civil War
	Mozambique	Civil War
	Somalia	Civil War
	Central African Republic	Civil War
	Pakistan	Afghanistan-Pakistan Border Conflict

You may be as surprised as I to not see the US on that list, but then I remembered that according to President Trump we are not at war , still . . . if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, swims like a duck ... well, you know the answer to that.

So I began to think about that old email sig: BAPAKYAL, and how it might help one cope with the current depressing view of a world in ashes. And that of course made me think of Willie Nelson, and his version of the song "Just Breathe" by Pearl Jam, written by Eddie Vedder. Part of the lyric goes like this:

Oh, I'm a lucky man

To count on both hands

The ones I love.

Also sort of reminded me of "Stop feeling sorry for yourself. There are people who care about you. Move on." 

Which prompted me to sort of narrow my focus, pull away from the news and the wars of the world and realize that "I'm a lucky man." They are not legion, but I can count them on both hands - adding in a few toes depending on your definition.

And having lowered my blood pressure a bit with that reflection, I let my focus expand a bit.  I thought of my dear, sadly departed, Uncle Calvin, who taught philosophy at Purdue University into his 90s. A quick internet search reveals that he authored 21 books. I particularly remember Existence and Freedom - which he gave to me on my 13th birthday. I put off actually reading it for a number of years.

But I more strongly remember a conversation we had a year or two before his death. In that talk - I'm not sure where - maybe a family reunion? - he shared that he had reached the conclusion that of all human reflections, beliefs, and emotions, love was paramount.

It is a conclusion that places him among the great philosophers and theologians of history. I can only hope that those in positions of power in the world today can finally stumble upon that conclusion and realize that war is not the answer.

In the meantime - BAPAKYAL