 (c) Alice Whitney, 2006 © R. L. Whitney. Originally published on June 24, 1987
A theologian once asked the eminent British biologist, J.B.S. Haldane, if he thought any conclusion could be drawn about the nature of God from a study of his works. Haldane apparently answered, "An inordinate fondness for beetles." I think I would want to add spiders too. I was sitting at my very own dining room table the other evening, enjoying a moment's respite from the frenzied pace of the day while perusing the newspaper from back to front as is my wont, when I thought my eyes, never the very best even on good days, were finally giving out. Between me and the page I was keenly digesting were spots - spots that kept shifting in and out, up and down, in a most disconcerting fashion. Eventually, of course, the spots won out, in the competition for my attention, over the In Memoriams. Nothing I could do - roll my eyes, blink rapidly, tilt my head - seemed to shake the spots. Unlike most of the spots which nearsighted people are afflicted with from time to time these remained apparently in front of me, shifting in and out, up and down.  The scholar's view © Alice Whitney, 2005 © R. L. Whitney. Originally published on June 2, 1998
It would seem that what Robert Browning called “the last of life, for which the first was made,” should have worked out differently, if he was right. Having survived the raising of the children and gotten to approximately the age RB was talking about, I find myself coping with bloodthirsty hummingbirds and a teen-aged cat. In India, the Hindus traditionally held that life was divided into four stages, each lasting for twenty years. The last of the four, coming after the householder stage, allowed one to wander off, free as the birds, to seek enlightenment--or at least travel about with a begging bowl seeking food. The traditional Hindu teaching does not seem to have transmitted itself to the West in the way that might be hoped. Enlightenment is hard to come by, and few there be that seek it, no matter what you may have heard. But, hey, the news isn’t all bad. The scarcity of enlightenment is the very reason democracy works so well. Can you imagine the disruption that would be caused if we actually elected someone who knew what was going on? |
