Saturday, October 8, 2011

"Life is Lived on the Streets"

The statement, I have had enough may claim two polar meanings.

The first interpretation moves one to change, the other, to complacence.

There is the 'enough' that equates to a resting point, and there is the 'enough' that comes as a bellowed longing, a heaving sigh or a vindictive chant.

I am no scientist. Patience I have not, and the mathematical patience the various scientific trades require is much too heavy a cost for my feeble body and mind. Nevertheless, despite this prescient reality for me, I remain deeply interested in the theoretical and practical advances we see constantly revealed before our eyes. A question I have longed asked my friends of renown, is the question of the speed of light. For interstellar travel, it would appear necessary for us to break this supposed law to make any claims at Star Trekkian success. I have, on many occasions, been told that it can't be done; that it will never be done. The speed of light is the max-out, the end of the ball of yarn, the summation of the speedial story. I refuse, in my home of relative ignorance, to accept such a proclamation.


You see, maybe this world's had enough of being solely slower-than-the-speed-of-light. Maybe we've had our fill of that time period. Maybe it is time for a speedal game changer. And I ask you, you skeptic, you fat and satisfied; who are you to say otherwise? Tell me!

Last week quite a rufus was made by claims that some Italian neutrinos had broken the speed of light by a few nanoseconds. Apparently the evidence is pretty credible:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=particles-found-to-travel

The thing about being satisfied, about saying, I've had enough as if to speak of a permanent contendedness with the status quo, is that it ultimately constructs a belief that the story is complete.

The story is not complete. To believe otherwise is blasphemy.

We are walking through this life, through this grand story that we've been dipped into, and in our walking we must remain acutely aware that we are walking towards an end, towards the next signpost.

N.T. Wright writes in his book Surprised by Hope,
Jesus’s appearing will be, for those of us who have known and loved him here, like meeting face-to-face someone we have only known by letter, telephone, or perhaps e-mail. Communication theorists insist that for full human communication you need not only words on a page but also a tone of voice. That’s why a telephone call can say more than a letter, not in quantity but in quality. But for full communication between human beings you need not only a tone of voice but also body language, facial language, and the thousand small ways in which, without realizing it, we relate to one another. At the moment, by the Spirit, the word, the sacraments and prayer, and in those in whom we are called to serve for his sake, the absent Jesus is present to us; but one day he will be there with us, face-to-face.

When all is lost, when best friend betrays, father denounces, and nation slanders... when characters like Titus Ronet have no physical relationship to cling to --- there remains the reality --- the story isn't over. Not yet. There are more acts to be played out. There are more cards to reveal. There are more plot twists to be had, to inspire, to bring to despair, to bring to hope.

As for me, as for you, let us not grow satiated with having enough blessing.

Enough's enough. Something's got to give. Let's live to see the next plot twist. Let's live to meet our maker face-to-face... to see what the denouement has in store for us. 


*The title of this post was taken from a work of graffiti I pass by almost daily here in Koper. It presents to me this unease, this uncanny sense that I must do more of this, this living.

1 comment:

  1. Mmmmm... full of excellent thoughts. Let us long for the next veil to be torn, then the next, then the next. More and more.

    ReplyDelete