After awhile
... you just get sick of the same thing at the top of your blog and have to post something, anything, to make it new and exciting again (after all, an ever-shrinking audience awaits). So here's a thought that's been rolling around my head for awhile:
Pirate Brandon posted awhile ago a very existential piece about the archetypal struggle between chaos and order. Now, most of our lives are very far removed from chaos, in the ancient sense at least. The ancients all lived on the edge of civilization. They had a much stronger memory for the toil of creating order in nature--clearing fields, digging irrigation canals, building walls and houses that fell apart. We are so surrounded by order (vs. nature) that we have no fear of chaos anymore. Moreover, we have learned through scientific study about the order that exists within nature, much of which we can predict and manipulate. There are, of course, forces of natural chaos that still jump up and bite us--hurricanes, incurable diseases, etc. But for the most part, we regard those as exceptional, and as enemies whose days are numbered. A city gets destroyed by a hurricane, and we blithely decide to rebuild it--expecting to figure out a way to beat the next force of chaos (?).
Now, our separation from the fear of chaos hinders our understanding of the human past. Most accounts of creation (from anywhere in the world) begin with chaos and show how the gods introduced order. Even the account in Genesis, which is unique in many crucial ways, shows how Yahweh imposed order on the watery void. Then, in a terrifying sequel in chapter 6, he judges humans by returning the world to that watery chaos--covering the land with a flood. But we think of Noah and all the cute animals in the ark, and feel none of the fear that would have come upon the ancient audience.
Of course, the other side of this issue is that "modern" humans have rediscovered in our own time a fear of a different kind of chaos--the chaos within ourselves and our societies. Order is giving way to chaos in the form of suicide bombers and artillery shells. Or if we feel utterly unaffected by the chaos on the news, we look at our own lives and feel surrounded by emotional and relational chaos. We have no rest from our anxieties, no confidence that we will ever be able to "fix" what's wrong with ourselves, our careers, our kids (? he wondered, having no kids yet. But worrying about them nonetheless). When will we stop running? When will we have rest? How long before Iran can arm Hezbollah with a nuclear bomb? And when I buy my $3.25 gas from Citgo, am I bringing that day closer? (It's a stretch. Maybe.)
"When Lamech had lived one hundred eighty-two years, he became the father of a son; he named him Rest, saying "Out of the ground that Yahweh has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands."
Pirate Brandon posted awhile ago a very existential piece about the archetypal struggle between chaos and order. Now, most of our lives are very far removed from chaos, in the ancient sense at least. The ancients all lived on the edge of civilization. They had a much stronger memory for the toil of creating order in nature--clearing fields, digging irrigation canals, building walls and houses that fell apart. We are so surrounded by order (vs. nature) that we have no fear of chaos anymore. Moreover, we have learned through scientific study about the order that exists within nature, much of which we can predict and manipulate. There are, of course, forces of natural chaos that still jump up and bite us--hurricanes, incurable diseases, etc. But for the most part, we regard those as exceptional, and as enemies whose days are numbered. A city gets destroyed by a hurricane, and we blithely decide to rebuild it--expecting to figure out a way to beat the next force of chaos (?).
Now, our separation from the fear of chaos hinders our understanding of the human past. Most accounts of creation (from anywhere in the world) begin with chaos and show how the gods introduced order. Even the account in Genesis, which is unique in many crucial ways, shows how Yahweh imposed order on the watery void. Then, in a terrifying sequel in chapter 6, he judges humans by returning the world to that watery chaos--covering the land with a flood. But we think of Noah and all the cute animals in the ark, and feel none of the fear that would have come upon the ancient audience.
Of course, the other side of this issue is that "modern" humans have rediscovered in our own time a fear of a different kind of chaos--the chaos within ourselves and our societies. Order is giving way to chaos in the form of suicide bombers and artillery shells. Or if we feel utterly unaffected by the chaos on the news, we look at our own lives and feel surrounded by emotional and relational chaos. We have no rest from our anxieties, no confidence that we will ever be able to "fix" what's wrong with ourselves, our careers, our kids (? he wondered, having no kids yet. But worrying about them nonetheless). When will we stop running? When will we have rest? How long before Iran can arm Hezbollah with a nuclear bomb? And when I buy my $3.25 gas from Citgo, am I bringing that day closer? (It's a stretch. Maybe.)
"When Lamech had lived one hundred eighty-two years, he became the father of a son; he named him Rest, saying "Out of the ground that Yahweh has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands."
posted by Chaka at 11:55 PM
1 comments
