Visiting Le Marais gave me food for thought. Universities offer classes in everything except how to be a ‘mench’ - in Yiddish to be a valuable human being. I share the belief of many that whether they profess faith or they do not, "truth reflects itself in many different ways" and everyone has experienced a sense of mystery in their lives that enhances their quest for divine truth and self-discovery. This is not bland pantheism, God ‘is that he is’ but the quest for glimpses into who and what the ‘is-ness’ of God is, is hardwired. ( I thought this last quite rabbinical) Man’s individuality is flexible allowing endless strategic possibilities for discovery and expression of what C S Lewis called Grace. Much as light is separated and broken up by dispersion, the determinism of God is metamorphosed through the prism of humanity. Freedom means that I do what I ought to do, not what I like to do and Man’s individuality is flexible allowing endless possibilities for expression. Light. Is it a particle or is it a wave? It makes no sense to be both, but the instruments don’t lie – the truth is that light is in fact both – teaching the inflexibility of the wavelike nature of light denies its particulate nature.
All this arose because I have been in conversation in recent times with a ‘closet believer’, someone whose pragmatism is occasionally ruffled by glimpses of the river of the water of life. Some months ago, a friend wrote this…Italics mine.
“I've had a thought ...maybe mid-life crises of faith, or even changes in direction actually happen because we are confronted with an ever growing menu of reality entrees and it's just too much.”
Being spoiled for choice does indicate a certain sophistication, perhaps. The trick, I suppose is to actually choose.
Hi my friend. Cool thoughts. His burden is Light! I have always thought of freedom to be a capacity to do what you choose. Whether it is something you ought to do is irrelevant if you have not the capacity to do it.
ReplyDelete'My Virtual Self' stole my post! (He often steals my ideas though he'll never admit it). Whether Light is a wave or a particle is a question for more mathematical minds than mine. =) But at the risk of being scorned by the real thing, I think of that verse in Matthew as Quantum Physics (I'm certain you'll correct me) - His burden is Light.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing that came to mind is something I recently read in Brennan Manning's Ragamuffin Gospel - he also quotes C.S. Lewis on the idea of grace. We argue and are conflicted intrapersonally and interpersonally about reality, non-reality, God, not God and miss the substantiation of Truth all around us everyday in the operation of the limitless, incomprehensible, uncontainable, and totally unmanageable grace.
A stellar post, MathMan. Something to chew on for a day or two. Very cool.
His Burden Is Light. Fascinating. Quanta have mass. I often find convergence in the incomprehensibility of both Grace and quantum mechanics - if anybody tries to tell you they understand either they lie and the truth is not in them.
ReplyDeleteAh. Quantum mechanics - SO much more comprehensible than quantum physics. lol
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I'm correct but the idea that His burden is actually Light has been something I've chewed on for years. Percolates to the surface every once-in-a-while and I give it another go. Every time it's been a very worthwhile bit of meditating.