Don’t think so much in the land of partial information


The truth has never changed. The start of all that matters has never changed. The names and faces change, the messages change, the books and scholars change, the questions change, the answers have never changed.

All men are created equal and given a few unwavering rights. What is this life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness? What is this equality? I see it nowhere on TV or on the street.

You say it’s in this book or that book or this web site or that. You say you are educated and intelligent, but mister the books and recorded media of the last measly few thousand years are vast like an ocean and no man can know them, even touch them or smell them in one short life. Certainly you must mean you are ignorant as a snail and this I would happily agree and take you as my friend till death do us part. But, I fear by the red in your eyes that I have only insulted you as the knife in my back has your name on it. I am sorry, I did not intend to cause you any pain and now I must die.

So as my mind beings to fade into the great and final darkness, I think, what was life all about? What is truth? Who are all the characters competing for largest audience? Which one was right, which book was accurate, which brand of paper towel really lasts longer? The following flows out in the final moments of my life…..

From the day we look up and cringe at the blaring bulb in the hospital ceiling to the day we look down and see the floor approaching our face on the way to our final breath, we are all victims of partial information. Forced to take a position on everything regardless of how little we know about ourselves, our fellow man, and ancient ancestors who didn’t have hard drives and big screens.

So you want to know who Jesus was or who god is? He must be all that I had time to discover: I Ching, Upanishads, Kabbalah, Confucius, Lao-tzu. Buddha Gutama, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Lucretius, Nag Hammadi, Marcus Aurelius, Sextus Epiricus, Plotinus, Moses Maimonides, Desiderius Erasmus, Nicholaus Copernicus, Girodano Bruno, Galileo, Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, Karl Marx, Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Friedrich Nietzsche, Vilfredo Pareto, Gandhi, George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein, John Maynard Keynes, Norbert Wiener, George Orwell, James Campbell, Alan Watts, JFK, Martin Luther King, John Lennon, Bill Hicks, and the infinite writings, actions, words, and thoughts of 20 billion lesser accomplished folks I know little to nothing about that walked this earth since the dawn of mankind.

But no, these have only made me ask more questions; please in my final seconds what in gods name was the truth? Mind, please don’t fail me now, my time is up. There is nobody else to ask, there is no other book to read, there is nothing, nothing, nothing, I give up, and you win, you always win. A collection of final images pass……

I am a toddler and my elderly uncle is pushing me in my stroller across the bridge over the river. I am a teenager dropping an LP on the record player. I hear good music and watch the sun rise. I have my arm around the person standing next to me and we both smile. I call an old friend or relative and they are so happy just to hear my voice. I dance a little jig and sing out a song with all my might. I tap on the keys, pluck the strings, blow the reed, and hit the drum and some sound better than others. The birds fly across the horizon. I notice the sight and smell the flowers on my wife’s table. I leave the picture.

Paint a wall. Hold your baby. Kiss your lover. Stand in the breeze and breathe in the fresh air. Drive a car. Drink the cold water from the stream. Taste ice cream. Watch the sun go down and the stars rise up across the great expanse of a clear night sky. Eat a hamburger. Sit by the fire pit and watch the embers and listen to the crackle. Comb your hair. Think of the person who gave you their love or simple kindness or a few minutes of their time. Think of how they never asked for anything in return. Watch the children play and your children grow up. Teach them to love each other. Give a hand to a stranger. Touch your head to the pillow and drift off to sleep. Wake up, put on some good music and watch the sun rise. Oh, if I could only rise once more.

I had the answer all along and never knew it. I finally get it, my heart stops and all that was me rises up through the trees; never again to spend this one life in illusion and endless questioning about who is right and wrong in the battle field of partial information.

Peace
Rev