i have been re-watching the west wing*, and i think i just discovered the meaning of life. in the episode i just saw, president bartlett comes back from church and complains about the pastor** getting ephesians wrong. the point of ephesians, he says, is:
be subject to one another.
i am not religious***, and a quick glance at the rest of ephesians 5 tells me that i probably don't have much in common with paul****. but the phrase resonated with me. and it reminded me of a passage i read years ago:
'You fight your superficiality, your shallowness, so as to try to come at people without unreal expectations, without an overload of bias or hope or arrogance, as untanklike as you can be, sans cannon and machine guns and steel plating half a foot thick; you come at them unmenacingly on your own ten toes instead of tearing up the turf with your caterpillar treads [...]'
-philip roth, american pastoral*****
it applies to scientific inquiry - it means subjecting ourselves to different opinions, different perspectives, disagreement. and actually being open to changing. it means more than just discussing or interacting with one another. it means considering, for a moment, that we might be wrong.it also applies to life. there is a lot to be said for toughness, resilience. but taken too far, one becomes impermeable. and the best things in life come from being permeable.
so that is my big insight for the year.
be untanklike.
be subject to one another.
happy festivus.
* for the third time.
**priest? minister? i googled 'what do you call the guy who gives the sermon at church?' but that did not help.
*** can you tell?
**** 'let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking.' no foolish talk? no thank you.
***** p. 35. guess how many pages i read?
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