Hey, Why Not Ask for More?

I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch

He said to me, "you must not ask for so much"

And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door

She cried to me, "hey, why not ask for more?"

Oh, like a bird on the wire

Like a drunk in a midnight choir

I have tried in my way to be free

**********

Dear Kate,

If there is an "original sin" it certainly isn't about sex.

It would have to do with Man stop going out to the Garden, a perversion of intimacy, slip slidin' away from the true pleasure, our first delights, everlasting joy of being human.

You could say, then, our misapprehension, misattribution of our "fallenness" aren't entirely baseless.  You might even say it's quite close to the base, our failing to achieve human's "chief end."

Q. What is the chief end of man?

A. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

So says a classic articulation of the Christian faith.

How far can you go in a day by only observing what not to do and calling that an achievement?  How about a week?  A season?  How bright can a fire burn to exhaust the energy of our negative freedom?

I was getting high since the first smell of spring last Friday.  I shared my joy with a few people and most of them suggested there are allergies to worry about, for themselves, for the kids, vulnerable people they care about, the entire humanity if they could.

I used to be like that, a kindly cynic, a misanthropic bleeding heart, a Reasonable Man.

It's not enough to know what we shouldn't be doing, which is what many think religion is for, like a Covid mandate, salvation a vaccine against...I don't know, whatever "sin" we can get ourselves to feel bad about at the moment?

Once someone asked Jesus which is the greatest commandment in the Law, and Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself."  Do I need to tell you whoever asked him wasn't really looking for a genuine answer, wasn't ready to give what it takes to love like this?

Our having fallen short of Man's (and God's) glory is first and last to stop meeting God in His Garden, to cultivate no vision of human flourishing.  To walk with God is a very dangerous pursuit of positive liberty, exploitable and explosive, the sky's not the limit, to hell and back a good part of the journey.  We've seen it done very badly and fear what it could do to us.  Isn't that, too, a perversion of intimacy?

Yours, Alex