LIFE RULES

Thanks for your rules of life. I think it’s worthwhile to ponder how we live and what we’re trying to do in this world. Of course, right living is probably far too complicated to be reduced to three rules, though I do like Mary’s suggestion that it might be reducible to one. I suppose that’s what John was getting at when he said “God is love.” (1 John 4:16) Nevertheless, here are my three suggestions:

Be humble. – We human beings are infinitesimally small, live only an instant, and know almost nothing. So it seems only reasonable that we strive to be as modest as possible about everything we think we know. In fact, come to think of it, we may be bigger, live longer, and know more than we think. And that’s one of the really cool things about humility; it allows us to revise.

Be worshipful. – I don’t particularly mean the kind of thing we do in church, though it happens even there on occasion. I mean an attitude to life that springs from humility and issues forth in wonder, gratitude and praise. Whatever we imagine is behind all this, even if nothing at all, existence is amazing. It would be a shame to be here for a lifetime and miss that.

Don’t be afraid. – Fear has its place in the evolutionary scheme of things but, beyond helping us stay around long enough to transfer our genes from our parents to our children, it’s mostly a problem. Fear makes it hard to love and trust, and without love and trust what’s the point? I believe that one of the greatest philosophical and psychological insights ever made happened when the Apostle John talked of love as opposed to fear rather than hate. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear... 1 John 4:18

Fear is a great motivator, which is why it’s a favourite theme of preachers, politicians, and so many who seek to have influence over people. But they are playing with fire. People who are afraid will do the most horrific things. But the best things in the world are done by people who make up their minds to not be afraid.

Supplementary comment:

I was watching an interview with Wendell Berry, a very down-home, humble, Kentucky farmer and philosopher who writes about life and the world around him. Toward the end of the discussion he was asked what he would say if he could sum up everything in a “last word”; similar to what we’ve been doing here I suppose. His response was thoughtful, as all his responses tend to be, and quite consistent, I hope, with the spirit of our discussion.

“I don’t think I know anything that’s reducible to a ‘last word’... What really interests me is the possibility that we humans can make sense... We’ve had two generations of college-bred people now who have been indoctrinated with the idea that every big problem has a big solution. And I just don’t believe it. The big problems we have now are going to be solved, if they ever are solved, by hundreds of people accepting local responsibility for small problems... People who make simple solutions always make trouble, and they’re always surprised by the trouble they make. So, to hell with the last words. Let’s try to make one sentence that’s rightly positioned within a manageable context so that we can utter it to somebody else and they’ll understand it. And we’ll be, then, on the way to defining a job that we can actually do.”

Again, thanks for your thoughts.