the indissoluble sacrament
Alternative Title: Death and Revenue Enhancement
“The idea that things must have a beginning is really due to the poverty of our imagination,” said Bertrand Russell in an article I was inspired to read after the death of the pope, an event which I found unexpectedly moving -- not that my emotions are to be particularly trusted these days. Most people identify with one religion or another as a coincidence of geography, and coincidence in general seems a much more likely explanation for it all than wise or divine planning. Isn’t it possible that some things have just always been there?
It is certainly a consolation to think that in the end, there will be God. He will right all wrongs when the right go up and the wrong go down. But if our world is a reflection of his, we should assume that justice doesn’t rule his world any more than it does ours.
In this world, Ben Franklin said, nothing is certain but death and taxes. Maybe he knew it all 300 years ago, but times have changed. Nowadays, there’s also credit card debt (thanks, Dubya, for the financial advice), a hole in the ozone that will never close, war, disease, McDonald’s, The Young and the Restless, the cat of mass destruction, and a kamaki at the bus stop at Café Da Luz. There is a meme that just won’t die, and even our blog needs a terror alert.
Disappointment is also a certainty.
But so are surprises. The truth is (possibly) the most important thing. Our idea of reality should be consistent with it. Lord have mercy.
“The idea that things must have a beginning is really due to the poverty of our imagination,” said Bertrand Russell in an article I was inspired to read after the death of the pope, an event which I found unexpectedly moving -- not that my emotions are to be particularly trusted these days. Most people identify with one religion or another as a coincidence of geography, and coincidence in general seems a much more likely explanation for it all than wise or divine planning. Isn’t it possible that some things have just always been there?
It is certainly a consolation to think that in the end, there will be God. He will right all wrongs when the right go up and the wrong go down. But if our world is a reflection of his, we should assume that justice doesn’t rule his world any more than it does ours.
In this world, Ben Franklin said, nothing is certain but death and taxes. Maybe he knew it all 300 years ago, but times have changed. Nowadays, there’s also credit card debt (thanks, Dubya, for the financial advice), a hole in the ozone that will never close, war, disease, McDonald’s, The Young and the Restless, the cat of mass destruction, and a kamaki at the bus stop at Café Da Luz. There is a meme that just won’t die, and even our blog needs a terror alert.
Disappointment is also a certainty.
But so are surprises. The truth is (possibly) the most important thing. Our idea of reality should be consistent with it. Lord have mercy.
posted by soap at 9:50 am
4 Comments:
Dunno sis, dunno.
On the other hand: why should I?
But so are surprises. The truth is (possibly) the most important thing.
You know, I used to think so, too - but I am not so sure any more. (And yes, maybe in this instance it's also and again all about sex as dystro would jump at the opportunity to point out!)
Isn't truth what we often choose it to be? And what's wrong with being wilfully delusional, at least occassionally?
My life could use a bit more delusion - and illusion at that - wouldn't yours?...
[Brilliant post, by the way]
It is certainly a consolation to think that in the end, there will be God. He will right all wrongs when the right go up and the wrong go down.
Actually I find more consolation in the thought that in the end there will be worms, rather than God, and both right and wrong will go down (about 6 feet or so).
Veil Seven: The Illusion of Prophets: "...the illusion that you could get someone else to do it for you. To think for you. To hang on your cross. The priest, the rabbi, the iman, the swami, the philosophical novelist were traffic cops, at best. They might direct you through the busy intersection, but they wouldn't follow you home and park your car."
(Skinny Legs and All, Tom Robbins, Bantam Books 1990.)
I think that this is a more optimistic and up-beat approach!
PS. If we're gonna be sad about the Pope, how should we feel about Grigoris Mpithikotsis? At least he represented something really pure and beautiful.
Wow! When I wrote my response to Meme 451, I thought about including Ellen Cherry in my list of teenage literary crushes, but I didn't want to be so provocative. (I love that book, Steph. That airstream turkey just cracks me up.) The distinction between truth and illusion (illusion and delusion) is quite often blurred, but the truth in this case was that I had just finished doing my taxes. Really. There was no metaphor.
Well, by the end, there was.
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