Chapter Four: It Is What It Is

Postmodern language has this fearless spontaneity for communicating a concept. A lot of it surrounds ideas of being, meaningful existence, life. How was it Jimmy Buffett put it? "I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead." No pretense there -- it is what it is!

Cutting to the chase, it doesn't mean beans what others believe and are doing. If readers are left with the impression that the object of all this conceptualizing is to critique the religious establishment, then I have missed the mark. By the same token, there must be a point of impingement for any belief to have value and meaning. It is not about the other guy; ultimately, it is about the person, being, and meaningful existence. Some will say they have no more than what they started with. Others may feel a connection to a kindred spirit that before now was not filled.

Life is a story about journey with humanity. Pat answers abound with every scheme imaginable. Window dressing. Marketing. Sex sells. The sports car that you always dreamed of having is on sale right now with zero interest, then followed with a blurb of rapid-speak gibberish that basically says there is only one and you better have more money than a sheikh if you expect to get it at this price. All that said, to say this: Postmoderns are not the easiest people to persuade because a lot of who they are is the result of being lied to a million times. So here's the disclaimer -- if it's health, wealth, and streets of gold you're after, search for the golden fleece or something, but search somewhere other than here.

The people who went to hear Jesus often found him in the wilderness -- away from the comfortable environs that got the same results by doing the same things. Risky business to leave all that -- established practice ruled the day. So who would do that? And what kind of teacher would venture to touch on controversial subjects that would likely bring trouble? Laboring and heavy laden, they came -- there must have been a spark of desperate hope. Understand, I am not speaking to those who are at church everytime the doors open. People struck by the name "CWOWi" would not risk the comfort of where they are to seek something that intangible. Free spirits do, and they know the price of being free often involves isolation. So what is the point? If a CWOW offers nothing in the way of real estate, what does it offer? This: It is what it is!

Following is a welcomed response from an engineering mind:

Reido,
These few paragraphs that you wrote brought so many thoughts to mind that I can barely put together a coherent comment. What stands out most prominently is that we must work with what we have. There is no Holy Grail. The abundant life is the one we're living. The modern concept of improvement, slowly takes away life until there is nothing left.

The engine of Modernity is standardization. Standard maps to standard parts to standard textiles from programmable looms, to the assembly line to standard job descriptions. And of course we got standard theology long before all of this. But in practice, standardization is not. Standardization is a one word oxymoron.

We achieve standardization by discrimination not by improvement . First we decide what the standard is. Then we cull out all variations. This may make good sense applied over just a few iterations. But when the process gets repeated over many generations, the box drawn by the standard grows smaller and smaller. This is called inbreeding. The results are not good. What we've achieved over several centuries of standardization is not increased compliance but decreased sample size. The universities accepting only the best Freshmen, produce the best graduates. So what!

Bill

There was a mystical ingredient in what Bill said, did you see it? "There is no Holy Grail." Given the immense popularity of "The DaVinci Code" right now, his choice of symbols fits. We know what he means; the panacea that cures all proves to be more preventive than therapeutic. This characterized the modern age of Objectivism and its many prescribed solutions. But think, there is no grail...or is there? Remember what Jesus said? "The kingdom of God is within you." In many other places, sacred literature pointed to the locus of faith as a temple of the Holy Spirit, a chosen vessel, a tabernacle, a cup. You see, there is and there isn't a Holy Grail. It is what it is, and the whole thing depends on where one looks. If it's an external, scientifically verifiable object man seeks, man will be destined to worship at the feet of idols. But if we look within ourselves we will find the mystical image of God. After all the trials encountered on the way to the Emerald City, wasn't that what Dorothy learned from the Wizard of Oz?

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