An Atlantic Monthly Article
Allen sent me this piece.
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/medical_ethics/me0056.html
It came up during Bible Study, in another one of those tussles around the question, "If God wanted us to be perfect, why didn't he just make us so?"
Allen has been doing a lot of overhauling of his thinking around this lately. It is not only that he has reached the point where he has increasing difficulty in reaching perfection in his daily life -- we all reach that point sooner or later. But, dogged by the demons of his early childhood memories, he feels increasingly bad aboout his imperfections.
Allen's approach to resolving these feelings of unease involves two parts. The first part involves acceptance. Acceptance not only of his shortcomings, but, also of the fact that life sucks pretty bad when compared to the prospect of Heaven. We have rare moments of grace during which we can see a little more clearly God's promise, but, mostly they're few and far between.
The second part, I believe, is a real desire to "quiet the voices" in his head. Not actual voices. But, choices really. The dirty little secret of America's headlong pursuit of "happiness" is that for all the variety of freedoms -- license -- that we enjoy as Westerners, very few of us are actually happier as a direct result of them. Cable t.v. is nice, the Internet is nice, prickly pear frozen margaritas are nice. But, I can't say that my mood swings are any less mercurial today, than they were when I was five years old and begging my second cousin, Adele, for some of her three bean salad. The three bean salad has long since been replaced by a succession of so-called needs and wants, some legitimate, some not-so-legitimate; some that I know would be good for me; some that I know would not. The problem is, they all occupy equally large portions of my brain at any given time.
Allen's solution is to simply find the right person -- natural or supernatural -- to tell him what to do. He described a date he went on the other night, with a diabetic student in his masters degree program. The woman has written a thesis on her disease which she has been living with since the age of seven. Allen described in vivid detail how the woman talked him through each step involved in taking a blood sample from her finger, there at the table where they were sitting in a restaurant. He was enthralled by it. He said, the best part about it was that, here he was sitting at this table, being told exactly how to make someone else happy, step by step, and in no uncertain terms, almost like having an Owners Manual. He was turned on by it.
I honestly think if Allen could be told, step by step, without any ambiguity, exactly what he could do to make someone happy and it didn't involve breaking the law or sacrificing his own material well-being --he'd find a way to do it.
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/medical_ethics/me0056.html
It came up during Bible Study, in another one of those tussles around the question, "If God wanted us to be perfect, why didn't he just make us so?"
Allen has been doing a lot of overhauling of his thinking around this lately. It is not only that he has reached the point where he has increasing difficulty in reaching perfection in his daily life -- we all reach that point sooner or later. But, dogged by the demons of his early childhood memories, he feels increasingly bad aboout his imperfections.
Allen's approach to resolving these feelings of unease involves two parts. The first part involves acceptance. Acceptance not only of his shortcomings, but, also of the fact that life sucks pretty bad when compared to the prospect of Heaven. We have rare moments of grace during which we can see a little more clearly God's promise, but, mostly they're few and far between.
The second part, I believe, is a real desire to "quiet the voices" in his head. Not actual voices. But, choices really. The dirty little secret of America's headlong pursuit of "happiness" is that for all the variety of freedoms -- license -- that we enjoy as Westerners, very few of us are actually happier as a direct result of them. Cable t.v. is nice, the Internet is nice, prickly pear frozen margaritas are nice. But, I can't say that my mood swings are any less mercurial today, than they were when I was five years old and begging my second cousin, Adele, for some of her three bean salad. The three bean salad has long since been replaced by a succession of so-called needs and wants, some legitimate, some not-so-legitimate; some that I know would be good for me; some that I know would not. The problem is, they all occupy equally large portions of my brain at any given time.
Allen's solution is to simply find the right person -- natural or supernatural -- to tell him what to do. He described a date he went on the other night, with a diabetic student in his masters degree program. The woman has written a thesis on her disease which she has been living with since the age of seven. Allen described in vivid detail how the woman talked him through each step involved in taking a blood sample from her finger, there at the table where they were sitting in a restaurant. He was enthralled by it. He said, the best part about it was that, here he was sitting at this table, being told exactly how to make someone else happy, step by step, and in no uncertain terms, almost like having an Owners Manual. He was turned on by it.
I honestly think if Allen could be told, step by step, without any ambiguity, exactly what he could do to make someone happy and it didn't involve breaking the law or sacrificing his own material well-being --he'd find a way to do it.