For me, it always has been that when I am most happy; I am also saddest - most aware of the tragedy of this mortal life.
For the (to me) obvious inevitability of change, and eventual death - so that the happier, more perfect, more fulfilling, deeper and more wonderful is a moment, a situation - the sadder awareness of its inevitable demise.
Indeed it is gone even as we think of it.
And there is no answer to this, in this world - except for the destructive non-answer of "don't think about it".
(Which is the modern answer; compounded of massive-and-continuous distraction plus intermittent intoxication and/or mental blunting.)
This non-answer has the consequence of destroying happiness and appreciation, in order to eliminate the sadness at its inevitable demise.
But; unless we can each of us grasp that this mortal life is most tragic when it is best; then perhaps we cannot grasp the magnitude of Christ's gift of resurrected eternal life?
Note: I was very aware of the tragedy in happiness of this mortal life long before I was a Christian; indeed from my middle teens. The difference was that I could never discover any solution to the dilemma, and I misunderstood (and disbelieved) the Christian answer - which I falsely assumed to be the assertion that the tragedy of this life was somehow compensated by happiness in the life to come. Therefore, the only viable possibility seemed to be to try and ignore or blot-out awareness of the phenomenon (as nearly everybody does, apparently, nowadays, in The West at any rate). Currently, I realize that extremely few Christians apprehend the problem, nor do they understand Jesus's solution to the tragedy of this mortal life. As usual; it's all too simple, clear and obvious - too childlike; to be graspable by the abstraction-addicted and this-world-bounded Western mind.
5 comments:
Memento mori, buffered by the faith, hope and love found in the resurrected savior, Jesus.
This is apt as I feel this raising my young children currently. I've never been happier but at the same time I've never felt such poignancy at the passing of time. I'm a bit confused by your comment though- "[misunderstood] the Christian answer-I falsely assumed to be the assertion that the tragedy of this life was somehow compensated by happiness in the life to come." Could you explain that a bit more and how that is false? I thought that was what Jesus Christ offered. Resurrection into heaven and eternal life. Thank you.
@Mary - I think it is a mistake to think of resurrection as compensation. It can be, for some people, but that is not its meaning.
The meaning is that this mortal life is intrinsically permeated by evil and made tragic by death and change - but that it is also full of hope and actual goodness.
The fleeting goodness of this mortal life (its beauty, virtue, truth - all good things) is made-real, gets real value, from its being *known" as a phase in eternal life, part of our personal life that lasts forever.
This perspective (or framework) makes difference that passing joys (all the Good Things) are not swept away and lost - but are instead everlasting.
If instead of the above, Heaven is regarded as *compensation* for mortal life, then this *devalues* mortal life - and mortal life becomes something that we probably want to end ASAP. Whereas, I am saying that it is Heaven that gives value to mortal life.
For as long as God sustains us alive, then there is potentially some eternal value in it, for us - some-thing that may be learned and made part of us forever.
In Objectivist circles, there is an ongoing debate around people who cry when happiest- one side says those people have a “tragic sense of life” which is not really changeable due to being formed in childhood but is sub-optimal. The other side (consisting entirely of people like myself who *do* cry when happiest) contends that the other side are idiots, and that’s about as productive as that debate ever gets!
The older and more Christian I get the more I shudder at the notion that one should ever strive to feel *less* of anything.
@Mia - Objectivism is just a branch of atheist, materialist leftism - and as such metaphysically incoherent; and only possible due to systematic self-blinding.
Rationally; at the end of that path lies a very short life of euphoriant drug intoxication followed by suicide.
Post a Comment