deus ex machina

"Deus ex machina" translates roughly as "ghost out of the machine", and lately I've been haunted by ghosts -- both living and dead ones -- and have wondered about this phrase time and again. You may have heard this term before -- it refers to an implausible, near impossible, ending to a story where something/someone saves the day and makes everything okay (as was often the case in the long-ago Greek dramas). In other words, the struggles, trials, messes, and flaws of the characters are all wiped off the Life Chessboard by an angel, knight in shining armor, someone waking up and realizing it's all been a dream. I'm learning to let go of expecting my own ghost to bust out; it's a continuous process for me. Expecting someone to suddenly knock on my door and apologize and say everything I only think I want to hear? Um, no. Winning the lotto to save the day for my family? Not gonna happen.

Spiritually, I don't want a deus ex machina to rescue me. I'd be cheating myself out of the experience. If a magical genie came along and said he or she would grant every one of my wishes, I think I could genuinely say I would decline. It doesn't mean I don't think about these possibilities; and I believe luck has its place in the tapestry of our day-to-day existence. I may not believe in happily ever afters, but I do believe in happy accidents, beautiful convergences, the non-coincidence nature of Life. I guess you could say that I feel the Web all around us, and sometimes we're riding high, sometimes low, and no external ghost is going to make or break us. It's those internal ones we need to focus on, celebrate, nurture, and forgive.