Ever wondered why the Chinese and some other old civilizations honor profoundly their ancestors? Think for a moment just about the lives of your four grandparents.
The truth is that everything they did made an incalculable difference to you, however trivial or important it seemed at the time. The hard fact is that every action they ever took in their lives, and every chance encounter they had with man, beast or inanimate objects, had to have happened in such a precise and perfect sequence for you and your offspring to have been born. Had one of them missed the bus that day of your parents' conception; not gone to a party; neglected to call on Friday Nov. 12, 1908 for a date; and on and on in an infinite panorama of possibilities, any one action of which would have doomed your ever being born.
Endless, really, and mind-boggling, how perfectly timed almost every aspect of their lives had to have been to have borne just your parents into the world. And the same for every prior and subsequent generation in your direct line to the mystic past.
It's much like the discoveries of science that have converted modern physicists into persons of faith. Had the Big Bang not occurred with the precise force and timing that it did, the resulting universe would not have been created in a way that could initiate and sustain living organisms. So the birth of every one of us is tied to this initial miracle, and a timeless sequence of events has resulted in our own miraculous birth.
That unassailable truth about each of our own lives screams out at us. If only we would listen. Every thing that happened to every one of our direct descendants, and to the organisms which preceded them, had to happen precisely as it did for each of us to have been conceived.
However ordinary our lives, or those of our progenitors, in conventional terms, the incomprehensible odds of our being conceived makes us each the winner of a cosmic lottery against odds we couldn't even imagine. So little had to happen in the course of millions of years for us not to have made it into existence. The smallest detail might have sabotaged our very lives.
So totally extraordinary is it that I am alive, and every ancestor before me.
A miracle really. Every person who has come into existence represents a miracle, in overcoming the incalculable odds of it never having happened. But do we remember this in the conduct of our lives? Are we imbued with the profound miracle of our private existence, so that we treasure every moment and experience? And give thanks?
___________________________________
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
The Chinese honor their ancestors because of the lifelong love and devotion they offered them, because of the rich history of their lives, and because of their personal connections to those lives. In this way, they found their place in their family, in their community, and in the world. They believe they are spiritually connected to them, and that their ancestors look after them and advise them after death.
They do not honor some simply random set of chance occurrences in a chaotic universe. Nor any mere intellectualization. They are our roots, our family. The most important and cherished bonds a human being can possess.
My apologies as a first-time reader, but anyone who doesn't understand why you should honor your own grandparents, probably shouldn't be spending his time writing a blog -- but searching for his heart.
John's argument is valid and makes sense if one truly knew their ancestors in this life. But it seems a bit arrogant to suggest that his way of perceiving a connection to his ancestors is the only way. Nor is his opinion that it is a "random" and "chaotic" universe yet proven or accepted. Belief in a Supreme Being and my observations lead me (and many others I suspect)to believe that there was a plan for us to be born and a purpose for our miraculous lives. If that means I shouldn't have a Blog in John's opinion, so be it!
Post a Comment