The Giving Universe?

“You can’t out give the universe” –business writer posting on the internet

A man said to the universe:

“Sir, I exist!"

“However,” replied the universe,

“The fact has not created in me

“A sense of obligation.”

--Stephen Crane

I’m not sure where the first writer gets her ideas about the universe giving anything. When I think of the universe, or even a bit closer, nature, I picture an indifferent void.

Does the universe give anything? Sure, it gives energy, or rather dissipates energy leftover from its creation. But it is “giving” only because it is radiating ontologically, it can’t do anything else until all that energy is gone.

But there is no motive there; no good will, altruism, generosity. That’s like thanking a rock one slipped into one’s pocket for good companionship. Sure, the rock accompanied that person, but only because the rock was ~~kidnapped~~ grabbed.

Neither does the universe possess malevolence. It may seem cruel, hurtling life-extinguishing rocks from space, churning up waves from the ocean that fill the lungs of a quarter-of-a-million people and empty the life from them.

Photo credit: Gisela Giardino (creative commons)

It just is. Though I would argue it is a creature—one way beyond our comprehension, but still…a creature.

If there is any generosity, any gift-bestowing happening it is coming from the creator of the universe. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

Neither does wickedness originate with this transcendent author as the Psalmist declares: “For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You.”

I suppose the “spiritual, not religious” crowd like to credit the universe for good and bad (though they mostly talk about all the good the universe is doing, not the rising toll of deer-motorist crashes.)

I don’t know about you, but I like to give credit to people responsible for whatever praise or blameworthy actions they perform. It’s tough to do that with an airless, soundless void.

Worth Quoting

There are but three social arrangements which can replace Capitalism: Slavery, Socialism, and Property. --Hilaire Belloc The Servile State

Good reads of 2009

I haven't made a list like this in a while, and I believe I discussed most of these on the blog as I finished them, but I thought I'd make a handy short-hand list for you and me. These are only in the order I read them and do not indicate any preference. The Open Door * Frederica Mathewes-Green The Children of Hurin * J.R.R. Tolkien The Omnivore's Dilemma * Michael Pollan Agrarianism and the Good Society: Land, Culture, Conflict, and Hope * Eric T. Freyfogle Wonderful Fool * Shusaku Endo Up the Rouge: Paddling Detroit's Hidden River * Joel Thurtell and Patricia Beck Johnny Cash and the Great American Contradiction: Christianity and the Battle for the Soul of a Nation * Rodney Clapp (I started the following in December, but I haven't finished them--so far they are excellent: Love and Hate in Jamestown * David A. Price and The Picture of Dorian Gray * Oscar Wilde) Try one of these--let me know.

Independent Women?

During breakfast today I was reading an excerpt from a play in The New York Times Magazine (I know, I was a day behind and read Saturday's edition yesterday) entitled Rust . The play, written by a professor at Grand Valley State University, here in Michigan, is a nonfiction drama about the closing of a GM plant in Wyoming, MI. The play itself sounds interesting and I enjoyed the excerpt, but what caught my eye was something a character said. The character is "Academic" and plays a historian and guide to the playwright, also a character. He is explaining the rise of the automobile factories and the effect of the car on American culture. He says, "Women became independent, they go from producers of food and clothing to consumers of food and clothing." This was meant as an earnest, praiseworthy point. I would counter with "How far we've fallen." To say that a woman (or a man) is independent because she has moved from producer to cons

I Am Not Hamlet

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