Himalaya
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
God is a puzzling answer to
the question of meaning. It is the simplest, the most inevitable
answer, but what does it tell us? Is God’s mere existence enough to
sate our existential yearnings, like a parent's mere presence gives meaning to
a child, or vice-versa. Because anything more requires
intermediaries, a book, a priest, a culture to provide the meat of
it. What is our meaning? To obey God? To serve
God? To spread God’s word? To support God with our
donations? It all seems not quite right. To find meaning
in God is like finding meaning in the mountain. It exists, it
preceded us and will survive us, it dwarfs us, we are mere pebbles in its
shadow. It might even love us. Okay, now what?
What does it mean to serve
the mountain? Just ask the Sierra Club. They'll guide us up the
mountain's trails, they'll preach about the mountain's perfection, they'll weep
at the beauty of its flanks and press upon us
their pamphlets about all they're doing to save the mountain. And
yes, they'll ask us to sign their petitions and support their efforts with
donations. They'll tell us to give till it hurts and
their sincerity will be like a hammer beating us
into submission. But take away their words and their books and
what do we have? A silent pile of stone is what we have. And
we're the chain gang.
What we have here is a
failure to communicate.
posted by William Lashner at
9:53 AM
1 Comments:
Perfect.
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