Inherent devotion resides within us all.
I use the word devotion with the acceptance of its weighty connotation, and so eschew a lighter term — commitment, for example — to illustrate the point more clearly.
We are born with the capacity for, and as such the need to express, devotion. No matter the manner in which it is enacted and focused, the end is all the same: Humans are built to devote themselves in big ways and in small, to objects of that devotion.
The need comes from the simplest of states of being. We, as young children are first devoted to parents, caretakers, to friends and family then to places or things, a favorite park or toy. As we mature, that devotion becomes focused on a romantic partner, children of our own and a greater expression of the eternal.
But along the way, our devotion may get us into unpleasant circumstances; we are devoted to someone who does not reciprocate, we are devoted to a dream we cannot bring to fruition, to a belief system which does not bring us contentment.
So, we come to mistrust it. We look upon devotion as silly, immature, and irrational.
Much of the rational world is built upon the rejection (or at least subjugation) of devotion. Temperance in lifestyle becomes exaggerated into excessive logical thinking. If we were to put devotion to the light of rationality, as the modern world often does, it would appear ridiculous.
Under such a context, it certainly is.
But in this hierarchy of rationality, and subsequent ridicule of devotion, we come to mistrust an inherent part of ourselves. Devotion is suppressed; and yet, though natural human needs can be suppressed, they cannot be entirely extinguished.
This way, devotion becomes perverted by mistrust and misuse. Some individuals become so immersed in their careers, the pursuit of material wealth or physical beauty, they focus so tightly on what they are chasing they cannot see they are driven by their natural tendencies gone wildly out of control.
They are, to borrow a decadent phrase, slaves to devotion.
To focus that devotion on one single purpose, and to omit all other possibilities, renders the individual vulnerable to profound disappointment if the object of devotion turns out to be, as all things are, transitory.
For devotion is, really, what we make it, and how we make it. To be devoted in a romantic or spiritual relationship can yield rewards for those who purposely take part, far more than those who habitually have one eye on the exit.
Natural devotion, like the power of the atom, is unavoidable. Devotion is, in so many ways, what shapes our lives. Yet, like atomic power, when misguided, it can be tremendously damaging.
So do not deny the power within you ... instead recognize it, and learn to focus it wisely.
Alex is devoted to the desert, and can be reached at alexander.petrusek@asu.edu
