Learning from paradoxes

HS  #4   2015.11.3

Learning from paradoxes

Every child should spend some time flying kites. Kites illustrate a valuable paradox about life.  Anyone who has flown one knows that it exerts a constant pull upward. More to the point, to keep the kite aloft, the operator needs to keep pulling it down. How interesting. The kite is trying – trying – trying to move up, yet it is the very act of holding it down that keeps it up. Let it do what it wants - release the string allowing it soar to the heavens, and the kite will flutter listlessly to the ground. That which seemingly is constraining it, is in fact the very thing that is keeping it aloft. Application: Constraints provide freedom. Paradox.

 Jesus’s teaching was full of paradoxes. Just one example: If a man compels you to carry his pack for one mile, carry it two. This is usually understood by commentators as an admonition to seek the peace by being gracious to one’s enemy -  even at personal cost.  I think they miss the point.  

Roman authorities realized that soldiers in conquered territory needed the help of the subjugated, so they allowed soldiers to require locals to carry their packs for one mile. This was obviously a  “stick in the eye” to the proud vanquished people. How humiliating to be powerless in one’s own country. 

Jesus, with a deep understanding of human nature, was suggesting a way for these dominated people to keep their dignity. Don’t carry the soldier’s pack out of coercion.  The soldier asks for the pack back after a mile. No way!  You’re going to carry it two miles because that is what YOU have chosen to do. YOU are in control of the situation, not the soldier.  Thus by carrying the load two miles rather than one, the Jew bids the soldier goodbye with his dignity intact.   

Fast forward: Those who have seen the classic movie, “Cool Hand Luke” may remember the scene where Paul Newman’s character challenged his fellow inmates to shovel dirt back into the trench being dug, not grudgingly from fear of the whip, but so fast that they might catch up with the back hoe.  In doing so, he transformed them from inmates to free men in a competition.  Doing more than is asked for seems contrary to one’s self interest, but in fact it is not. Paradox.

Another?  Consider the three unalienable rights listed in the Declaration of Independence: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Why not “Life, liberty and happiness? The founders must have realized that even with full life and liberty, the ultimate goal of happiness is not guaranteed.  One doesn’t have the right to happiness, only the right to pursue it.  Why? Because happiness is elusive.  The very act of pursuing happiness, just like the kite, can lead to a fluttering, listless life.  Instead it is those who get involved in a cause that draws one’s focus away from themselves who, often only in retrospect, realize they are happy and fulfilled.  Happiness then stays elusive when it is sought, but often comes as a wonderful byproduct when ignored.  Paradox.  

Yet another? Jonathan Livingston Seagull was the hip novelette of the ‘70’s.  An abiding truth of that little story is that the seagull who lived not to eat, but to perfect the art of flying was, ironically, the only seagull who had a constant supply of fresh tasty fish (by diving into deep water) while the others scrounged for scraps of decayed flesh on the beach.  Once again, the route to the best living is different from what one would expect.

Recall that a paradox is only an apparent contradiction, not a real one.  The existence of paradoxes then reveals that we don’t know ourselves – or reality – all that well.  We are all amateurs at life. I’ve played racquetball for over 30 years, but still consider myself an amateur because my best shots are accidental.   Similarly, I am still an amateur in living because, well into my 6^th decade, often the best things to happen to me are those I would not have chosen because they seem contrary to my best interest.  I am still surprised by life’s apparent contradictions.

Perhaps that is why the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard noted that life must be lived looking forward, but can only be understood looking backwards.  We live our lives amidst paradoxes, but we seldom notice them.  A richer life awaits as we do.

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