The Poet: How I Became The White Bear - Chapter #1

What if? A life of asking deep questions, and occasionally finding answers to them, and writing poems along the way

A tree budding in the spring of 2019, juxtaposed with the raised freeway and railroad bridges of the Shockhoe Bottom district, in Richmond, Virginia. Just a pretty photo I took along my weird journey in life, that I’m particularly fond of. #steveemigphotos

What if the Universe itself is a work of art created by a higher power, a power that exists no matter what name you give it, or what your background is?  What if thoughts are a form of energy that permeate the membrane of the Universe itself?  What if the entire Universe adjusts a very, very tiny amount with every single thought or belief each of us has?  What if the collective thoughts of all 8 billion plus people on planet Earth literally change the dynamics of the Universe moment by moment, in real time?  

What if we are really energy beings of some sort, inhabiting human bodies for a while here on Earth?  What if us energy beings… souls, spirits, whatever you prefer to call them, have a purpose each time we take on a human body here on Earth?  What if each one of us has a particular potential path for each life, to teach our spiritual selves certain lessons, lessons that can only be learned here on Earth, in the world of three dimensions.  What if your potential path in life doesn’t include living life like a pimp or a queen, like the supposedly rich and famous characters we admire on TV shows, in movies, and in music and rap videos?  

What if we are constantly being attracted to certain people and situations, through the inherent laws of the Universe itself, depending on our thoughts, beliefs, and actions, moment to moment?  What if the world of humans here on Earth actually needs all kinds of people for us to interact with, and to learn from?  What if every single person, of every variety, is needed here on Earth for a reason?

What if the Universe itself is the ultimate work of art? What if the work of art that is the Universe was created by the ultimate Creator, and was intended to play out over billions of years of Earth time, and each of our souls is a sliver of that Creator, sent out to explore this Universe over the eons?  What if this work of art was intended to play out over millions of years here on Earth, with human society ebbing and flowing, rising and falling, because of the beliefs we have, and our actions in life, moment by moment?  

What if the point of taking on human bodies for life after life is to eventually learn how to live moment to moment in a positive way, without letting the human traits of anger, hate, envy, jealousy, and other negative emotions cause us to react without thinking.  What if even the saints and more enlightened people struggled with all the same negative emotions that everyone else does, they just learned to act in a more positive way more of the time?  What if that tiny moment between when something happens, and our response to what’s happening, is what it’s all about? 

What if the really tough times in our lives were supposed to happen?  What if everyone gets tested in a different way, while living as humans?  What if the prophets were sent to Earth to teach some of the spiritual truths, to certain groups of people, at certain times? 

What if all the religions and mythologies of the world were like groups of people living in different valleys, who all lived around, and looked up at the same mountain?  The mountain, the truth of the Universe, looks different from every angle, but it’s the same mountain.  Yet the different groups of people, in the different valleys, see it a little differently.  What if we’re all looking at the same truth, yet fight over the fact that it looks a little different from our particular vantage point, compared to another’s view?

What if religion is what happened when the politicians and bureaucrats took the teachings of the great prophets, and picked the ideas they found useful, and disregarded other ideas, and formed a code of conduct for a certain group of people?  What if those politicians and bureaucrats didn’t fully understand the teachings of the prophets, they just used those teachings to control large groups of people and gain power?

What if the story of humankind was meant to play out over hundreds of thousands of years, and each of us played many different roles, in many different lifetimes, during that time?  What if we really do have free will, and the Universe, and human society, each shift a tiny bit with every thought and belief we have, and every action we take.  What if the Creator of this Universal work of art doesn’t “let” wars and violence and atrocities and famines and disasters happen, but the Creator simply built a Universe, where we can cause those things to happen? 

What if the life you dream of is not really the life that would make you happy and fulfilled on a daily basis.  How would you live your life if all of these ideas above were the reality of life?  How would you live your life then?

My name is Steve Emig, and I’ve lived a fairly unusual life, and worked all kinds of odd jobs, along with a few pretty normal jobs.   After 58 years of asking a lot of weird, and sometimes pretty deep questions, I think the reality of life is something close to a combination of all the “what ifs?” I’ve asked above. 

I’m a poet, among other things.  I’ve written around 400 to 500 poems in my life.  Writing the poems isn’t really what makes me a poet, the poems are just postcards from the journey that led to my current view of the Universe.  What made me into a poet was the seeking of answers to my most personal questions, and sometimes finding answers. Some of those answers came out in the poems I’ve written over five decades.  

I don’t expect many people to agree with all the “what ifs?” I’ve asked above.  Yet almost all of those ideas have been around for hundreds of years.  Only a few of the questions I asked above are really somewhat new.  You’ve probably heard nearly all of those basic ideas before.  Nearly all religions have the concept of humans being spiritual entities that have taken on human bodies here on Earth.  Yet, most people don’t really believe that.

I’m not asking you to accept my beliefs.  You can believe whatever you want.  I’ve taken a really weird journey to get to the point where the ideas above make sense to me.  You have your beliefs for a reason.  I’m just sharing the insights I’ve come to, for those who may find them interesting.  

In this book, The Poet: How I Became The White Bear, I’m digging into the poems I’ve written, and how writing verse has been a tie connecting the different parts of my life.  I’m writing this “book” serially, chapter by chapter, here on my Substack site.  I hope to turn it into my first actual printed book, someday.  Time will tell if I’m able to make that happen.

Link to The Poet- Chapter 2- “Freaks, Geeks, Dorks, and Weirdos”

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