On Being a Tool
"You're such a tool."
I've never been sure what this insult means. The Urban Dictionary offers two, seemingly unrelated, definitions:
- An offensive comment, mainly aimed towards the male of the species, when one is being particularly nasty, stupid, or facetious.
- Being used by a higher influence, mostly for the benefit of that higher influence.
The second definition offers an interesting possibility, it seems. The Baal Shem Tov is reputed to have said, "Regard yourself as no more than a tool. When a craftsman hits the rock with a hammer, this happens because of his desire, and not because of the hammer's desire, to hit the rock; for if it had been the latter, the hammer would be independent of the craftsman. Thus, things happen according to the infusion of the primordial mind into the tools."
So, the second definition is an insult only if the "higher influence" is a unworthy of that influence, like an overweening friend or abusive boss.
But what if the higher influence of which you are a tool is God, or Love? Is it really so bad to be a hammer in the hands of a Sacred Carpenter?
I know, I know, we like to think of ourselves as a good bit more than an inanimate object in the hands of a craftsman.
We are.
But not so much as we think we are. Perhaps that is the point of the Baal Shem Tov's invitation -- to encourage us to escape the illusion that we are in charge and give ourselves over, not just to a higher influence, but to The Higher Influence, by whatever name you call that sacred power.
[The image is a photograph taken by the author on his land in the Catskill Mountains in January 2012.]
Submitted by Tom Goddard on January 16, 2012.
