I understand your misgivings, but hesitate to assert their validity.
Permit me a digression.
Take Joshua, for instance. He's thirty years old, but lives near his parents so he can help his father with his construction and carpentry shop. The man has never wanted to be a carpenter, but rather a traveling man, on the go, always with something to say. A visionary, if you will. Someone with a mission to change the world. He has real talent for it too, and would do well even if he couldn't support himself. No matter. His talent is immense and he could create a following and some real social change. Yet here he sits. There's something wrong with that.
Now take William. He's thirty something too, and he lives in one of his parents' many houses. He doesn't work for a living. He may have gone to school, but it doesn't matter. He doesn't need an education where he's going. He will take over the family business when his forbears die. His future is assured, so he's taking it easy and living like a sultan. There's something wrong with that.
On the one hand, Joshua, a skilled, intelligent young man with somewhere to go, and no opportunity. On the other hand, William, a slothful layabout with no ambition nor care in the world.
Would it surprise you to learn that you know who these men are? One's a prince of Wales and the other's the son of God.
I posit therefore my theorem for your reconsideration: Not all men are created equal.
Correlating and interdependent theorem: Life is not fair."
He turned to his daughter.
"So, yes. Life is not fair. Now stop complaining about the cookie. You'd just spoil your supper anyway."
Fascinating. I really liked the ending.
ReplyDeleteI do think you were a little unnecessarily harsh with William, though. Just a little.
William is my lookalike. I have earned that luxury.
ReplyDeleteYou do have a point there. How hard did you work for that one?
ReplyDeleteAll my life.
ReplyDeleteWell, you've done a pretty good job. Of course, YOU'RE not balding, so you might want to work on that . . .
ReplyDeleteHunh, you're right--the tops of your noses, smiles, cheek bones, and eyes if you squint are quite similar.
ReplyDelete"All men are equal. Some are just more equal than others." --The Pig, Animal Farm
"Whoever said life is fair? Where is that written?" --Grandpa, Princess Bride
I am obviously not the first person to talk about this. I won't be the last.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, I'm not bald. Hooray?
I think the only place men have true equality is before God.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but the women are screwed.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but God isn't even fair. He's merciful. There's a difference, at least for me.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there IS a huge difference, unless you say that the only way He CAN be fair is to mix mercy and justice, which . . . kind of makes sense.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't talking about fair when I mentioned God. I was talking about equality. I believe in the difference, even though I didn't make that clear earlier.
ReplyDeleteYes, Janelle, that does make sense. God's justice is mercy. (And I think it's one of those "My ways are not your ways" things.)
God's justice is not mercy. God's justice is justice. God's actions are merciful or just or a mixture, but that does not make justice synonymous with mercy.
ReplyDeleteWe do not deserve God's mercy (justly), but we get it anyway (mercifully). But not everyone gets mercy, and not everyone gets justice.
Then again . . . being justly destroyed for our sins, as Sodom and Gomorrah were, could be seen as a mercy.
Never mind then. What I really wanted to say was "fosockp," Captcha's weird German-ish word (one word with another shoveled in). I know, in German, it's about sentences, not words, but whatever.
I can't say that I know what it is. So . . . this debate will probably go on forever.
ReplyDeleteGod is love! That's helpful, right?
Should the debate go on forever, or should we all just let it go? Are there things we don't/can't know that we should still think about?
ReplyDeleteYes. "God is love!" But it would really help to know what "love" is . . . I mean, He's not what I feel towards ice cream sandwiches, is He? No. Well, maybe. I mean, I really, really like them . . .
Someday, I might start actually editing these comments before I post them instead of just dumping my brain out on them every time.
"catent" = like content, but for cats instead of cons? I like it. There's a special kind of contentment in a content cat. . . .
Someday, I might start actually editing these comments before I post them instead of just dumping my brain out on them every time.
That would take a lot of the fun from them.
ReplyDeleteReally? Thanks! That's a very nice thing for a continent to say.
ReplyDeleteBonus points for catching that reference.
You definitely should NOT edit your comments. That's half the fun of commenting.
ReplyDelete(And since I apparently missed the conversation about justice and mercy and love, I don't think we can fully define God's justice or God's mercy or God's love. "My ways are higher than your ways. And My thoughts are higher than your thoughts." That's just my philosophy. And so when I say God's justice is mercy, I mean simply that He finds justice in giving mercy . . . if that makes sense. I'm not sure it does.)
Also, "scarrati" -- some strange for of Karate? Involving scarfs? Or producing lots of scars? (Most scars wins! Huzzah.)
Hmm . . . I thought maybe some weird sort of pasta, but "scarrati" works well for a fighting method.
ReplyDeleteYes, God has made us judges but He can't/won't/shouldn't give us what we need to judge effectively.
Blah, blah, blah, devil's advocate. Sorry. Ugh.
I feel I must quote jeff foxworthy at this time: "Whoever said 'all men are created equal' has never been in a locker room I'll tell you that!"
ReplyDeleteHaha, ouch. That hurts my brain and my manliness.
ReplyDelete