The Last Straw Part 1
June 22, 2025
The Last Straw Part 1
The saying “the straw that broke the camel’s back” comes from an Arabic proverb. It illustrates that even the camel, known for its stamina, can collapse under too much weight. Adding one straw to the camel’s load may seem insignificant, but it can be the tipping point, causing a critical mass of pressure that breaks the camel’s back! This idiom is sometimes referred to as “the last straw.”
Many of us can identify with the phrase “the last straw.” We use it when just one more thing would break us. This is a negative connotation of the concept of critical mass. This week we will reflect on the last straws we have experienced as we reached critical masses of suffering.
However, today, I ask you to reflect on the positive aspects of reaching a critical mass. Yes, we can embody a critical mass of joy, courage, humility, truthfulness, wisdom, empowerment, love…. or any Virtues, Idealized Aspects, Essential Aspects, or Holy Ideas. Increasing these things doesn’t add to our burdens; it increases our life force, capacities to love, and abilities to make a difference in the world.
And when we do not have enough of these beautiful things, we build more of them into our consciousness. Little by little, they accumulate to tip the scales and eventually bring us into an entirely new realm of being. Let’s take love as an example. We may be someone who cannot love someone the way we wish; we may find it hard to love those who stole from us, who have different political ideas, who betray us, or who ignore us. We may not know how to love someone who takes advantage of us or gossiped about us. But loving them is the only conscious way of dealing with them — when we consciously approach a situation, it saves us the self-destructive emotions that come with hatred, resentment, vengeance, and revile. Jesus knew that the high road was the best road, so he told us to “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:27-36).
So, for most of us, making the “unlovable” lovable is a challenge. And like building any virtue within us, we do it layer upon layer until there is a critical mass of that virtue in our soul. Reaching a critical mass of virtue is like learning to ride a bike— once we have the skill, we do not forget it. It is a natural inclination, not forced or practiced.
So, when it comes to increasing our capacity to love or to embody any of the Virtues or Holy Ideas, we must pray for that virtue, want that virtue, intend and practice that virtue, endure our failure to be that virtue, and succeed in being that virtue. Like learning to ride a bicycle, we must fall multiple times before getting the hang of it. Accumulated failings and successes create layers of experiences that finally bring us to that tipping point of embodiment.
A new idiom for the cumulative additions of positives in our life would be: “the straw that finally STROKED the camel’s back.”
Spiritual Practice: What Virtue or Holy idea would you like to build and embody? Assess your desire for that virtue, your intention to have that virtue, and your capacity to fail and succeed in being that virtue.
Self-inquiry: What about a particular Virtue or Holy Idea makes you want a critical mass of it?
Dear God,
I ask to build a critical mass of love such that love is always my very first inclination. Amen
