Dynamic Agency

Exploring Some Terms

Let's begin this experiment [viz. an old man trying to blog] with some clarification of the title--dynamic agency. I believe dynamic is one aspect of its opposite which would be static. Everything, it seems, has its opposite. Is that really true? (Some people think it's a big issue but this is not the time to discuss it.) In the case of this blog, we are simply dealing with what is active more than that which is inactive. Active stuff exerts power, inactive stuff doesn't. (For example, a woman might think 'man on a couch', or something like that.) As someone long ago noticed, there are things that act and things that don't. Without getting academic about it, lets just say there are things that are alive and things that are dead--not alive. That's how it appears to me at least. And then comes the terrible question, What is life? Think about it! Well, I am happy with the idea that life is a mystery and a mystery is a truth that can only be known though revelation. This idea does, however, raise even more questions to consider, but not right now--at least not right here. For the moment, perhaps we could be content to think the mystery of life is hidden in this notion: existence is more or less a field of energy information and people are beings of light. (This makes contemporary physicists happy.)

The rest of us should be pleased to understand this means the critical truth about our bodies would not reside just in our flesh, blood, and bones; perhaps in electromagnetic fields, waves, photons, and possibly [undoubtedly probably] other unseen phenomena which might even include intelligence. In other words, it is credible to conclude there is more to each of us than what we can see with our eyes--unaided or aided. It is self evident, we have spiritual as well as physical dimensions. This should not be dismissed, overlooked, or forgotten. Our children deserve to have this more expansive view of themselves and the world in which they live.  We are of great worth--every soul, in fact, is of great worth. And there is a lot of other important stuff on this planet capable of acting rather than just being acted upon. We do not reside on a dead planet and in a singular way humans are quite unique. Humans are more than a product of the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, or the animal kingdom which too many modern textbooks overlook.  There is more than adequate evidence to sustain the idea we are part of the kingdom of God. This has a lot of important implications.

Now we come to the second notion--agency. For me this term has two very important connotations: (1) agency is a realm in which a person is free to act. (2) It is also capacity--a power--to act, make choices and create--in the sense of organizing existing elements for some purpose or other. This all has to do with an environment of (a) truth--a knowledge of things as they were, as they are, and as they will or can become and (b) light--the enabling understanding or wisdom to apply truth in safe, useful, productive, and appropriate ways. From my perspective this--personal dynamic agency--is what mortality is all about and it is intentionally manifest in family. I have concluded for me, it is a lot easier to rear children on dirt than it is on asphalt. Next we can consider more about 'family.'