MY POEM TODAY IS AN answer to one of the Big Questions posited by Simon Blackburn in his Am I Free? (Choices and Responsibility).* This was prompted by a post shared by poet Simeon Dumdum Jr.. A Catholic Reflection on the Meaning of Suffering (See earlier post below). In the light of the Popes visit to the Philippines where he heard the woeful cry of a young girl recruited into prostitution: Why does God allow children to suffer? The Pope, unable to answer quickly nor readily, embraced the lass and let her cry on his chest. Why, indeed. does He allow suffering, when He is omniscient, all-Good, and a benevolent Creator? CHOOSING CHAOS (For All Those Who Suffer) Order is articulated chaos, its desire an old rebellion that recalls the loss of a streamlined paradise. Nothing is needed here. Everything is given. Then, why walk out of this Garden? A provident Eden where everything grew including his wanton dreams, of having his way: orders be damned. How simple things would have been. Each pebble on the pond had a reason to be there, each star a constellation of sunlight, each sun a starter of life. How serenely flowers would bloom on the tip of thorns, or water flow gently from the cracks of dry rocks, and ripe fruit fall into open mouths. Everything can happen here, nothing is everything there, a cipher is full. How benignly would mountains rise from the sea, and lakes from mudpools. Would movement have moved this conspiracy of stillness and creation? He could not see this, nor feel the pain of a yanked rib to make a woman cane. A yearning rooted in his belly burned, a lust for roaming the hidden valleys, finding struggle with fish and grain a surprising tug on his arms and loins. Walking out on a promise of fullness and unbridled abundance, did he choose somehow to stand on hind legs and see whence came the thunderous offer? You who are made in my image, shall have dominion over all that you see and taste, all that is still or moves, or none but the courage to choose. He chose to shape his own order out of the unseen chaos of growth he occupied East of Eden, and decided: We will gather ourselves some fig leaves. We will make ourselves our own image. --- ALBERT B. CASUGA *Simon Blackburn is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina. The Big Questions: Philosophy was published by Quercus Publishing Plc, London, UK, 2009.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 10:39:28 +0000
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