Representing Belief

In Marilynne Robinson’s article entitled “Reclaiming a sense of the Sacred,” I found it interesting how she was able to quote virtually every prominent Protestant Pastor of the 1800’s and combine their ideologies with those of Virgil and Homer. Granted, the effect was a flowing thread of one conclusion to another, however I found it interesting that she attempted to make that many connections in so long of an article – I somehow feel that it was the basis for a thesis paper that she had written some time ago (or, perhaps she is simply just that passionate about the subject matter at hand).

There are many ways that we can approach something foreign: we may revile or repulse at it, love it almost by instinct as did the female rats with the infant rats in her article, or simply take a more scholarly approach and instead learn to apply our own lives to what is being taught.

Whether for naught, ill or good, we are ultimately forced to either embrace or reject a topic when it comes to our recognition. As we realize our own weaknesses, for example, we have the options to either improve, stay the same by ignoring it, or simply get worse off. While we may struggle to achieve a perfect open-minded philosophy in this life, I propose a few things to help us along the way, which by no means should be canonical; first, we should strive to accept both the good with the bad. Much of life already gives us the sweet with the sour, so if we ignore the sour now in favor of the sweet, there will still come a due time in which we must taste of the opposite. Why not do so when we are best prepared and expectant of what is before us? I say, don’t be afraid of opposition to our own thoughts or belief systems, but to simply be cautious and be willing to truly spend the time in genuine research of the mind and the heart for both sides. Only by then doing these two things can we achieve a better sense of how we, too, might achieve a better balance in finding the good in more things around us. As a wise parent has probably at least once told us all: how can you know unless you try it? To which I would add, or experienced it vicariously?