Filling the Void

by Al deAprix, Jr.

There exists in the human psyche a void, an emptiness that can never be filled. It is a yearning for
that which cannot be expressed. It is an indescribable need for completion, an acknowledgement that as an
individual, every person is incomplete. For some, it persists as a dull ache, always skittering about at the edge of an
individual’s consciousness, causing life to seem somehow shallow no matter what achievements are attained, always
driving that person onward to excel further or to acquire more in hopes of slaking that thirst for fulfillment. For
others, however, it becomes a pathological impairment, compelling them to commit unspeakable horrors upon
society.
This is a difficult topic to approach because only a tenuous, unmapped boundary in human
behavior separates great achievement from great degradation. That urge to create which resides within can be
tragically metamorphosed into destructive impulses through which one views ruin as beauty, death as life, and hell
on Earth for its victims as a recaptured Garden of Eden. Perception becomes so warped through a compulsion to
create or acquire, that the victim of such compulsion – and such persons are victims themselves, in need of great
healing if such healing can be possible on Earth – fails to have any connection with those who have been devastated
or destroyed through the pursuit of the focus of that compulsion.
Adolf Hitler has served for two-thirds of a century as the ultimate example of the perverted pursuit
of power. Murdered millions formed the mortar for his rendering of a pure Aryan society based upon a
mythological blueprint of godlike beings that never existed beyond the stage of Wagnerian operas. Yet, while Hitler
stands as an ultimate example of how evil can deceive and destroy, even he had his creative impulses. He yearned
to become an artist and he supported himself for a while in Vienna selling watercolors and sketches. Once installed
in power in Germany he sought to glorify Berlin with the aid of architect Albert Speer, transforming it into the
world’s preeminent capital. Hitler had some artistic ability and a considerable talent for capturing the minds of
others through his writings and oratory, but evil seduced those talents and perverted his perception to the point that
he had no empathy for his fellow man, it all having been consumed in his insatiable lust for power.
Acquisition and the exercise of power are not in themselves evil. If clearly regarded as a tool to
be employed for the benefit of society, power can accomplish considerable good. If, however, its acquisition is
worshipped as an end-goal, if neither conscience nor morality governs its application, power can and too often does
become a vehicle for evil. The roll call of those seduced by power is sadly long: Hitler was just one of a familiar
list that includes Stalin, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, and Slobodan Milosevic. They are well-remembered for
their oppression and violence, but they differ only in degree from power’s more common abusers, the listing of
which includes the schoolyard bully, the tyrannical boss, and the battering spouse. All of these fit into the broad
spectrum of the abusers of power who carry on their affronts to society out of a sense that they are somehow
unworthy or incomplete, that they can only find relief from their inner, voracious voices through their escalating
oppression of others.
His great self-deception left Hitler literally consumed by the flames ignited by that voice which whispers in
the ego that nothing is impossible for those who need merely reach out and take what they desire. In that manner,
Hitler typifies humanity’s great weakness. We know that we are incomplete, that something more perfect than that
which we can comprehend must exist. That is a Great Truth of our religious teachings. We ache for communion
with that Perfection, but we cannot here on Earth attain it. We are unprepared and unworthy for it. Our time here is
meant, through our belief and faith, as a temporary period of preparation for that which follows. We must
understand ourselves and gain mastery over our impulses, employing them for the benefit of others rather than for
shallow, personal fulfillment. It is not wrong to create, nor is it perverted to wish to have companionship with others
while we here fulfill our temporal apprenticeships. We must avoid the temptation to revel in our own importance
and greatness, for it is fleeting and of as little value as one grain compared with all the sands on all the beaches of
the world. We must further acknowledge the void at the heart of our being for what it is: a hunger to attain
completeness which, by the design, we cannot experience on Earth; we must understand and accept our
incompleteness and not pursue the false promises with which ever-greater personal power and acquisition, pursued
for their own sake, seduce the unwary.
 Humankind has throughout its known history sought fulfillment, which might simplistically be labeled a
quest for union with Perfection. That perfection is unattainable because Man cannot on Earth experience a total
union with the Creator, but individuals can prepare themselves here for eternal union through calm reflection and
contemplation. To do so, the mind must be eased of its burdens and the distractions of modern life must be pushed
aside. That is best done in a place endowed with a glimpse of the Glory that we so fervently hope awaits us.
Madawaska is such a place. Its soothing waters, its forested isolation, its great natural beauty provide the spirit of
place needed for the search for Truth.
Madawaska offers those who make the pilgrimage there an opportunity to reflect, free of the pressure of the
corrupting influences of the worldly. The power of a thunderstorm driving across the lake from the south teaches
that no person can possess great power in and of himself or herself. The exquisite beauty of Madawaska’s setting
meanwhile reveals to us that no human work of art can rival that of the Creator’s. The pilgrim in its wilderness soon
comes to realize that nothing Man can ever achieve will rival the immensity and complexity and, yes, the simplicity
of the universe. If a man or woman stands small in awe of that which Madawaska represents, then the inner voices
driving him or her onward to accomplish can be harnessed to the service of a greater good rather than being
perverted to terrifying evil by the deceptions that stalk us all. Herein lays the true value of that which we call the
Madawaska experience.

C. 2003 by Al deAprix, Jr.