Letter #44: The Jagged Edge

Allegory comes Hardboiled

Spen-soir,

Yesterday’s letter was both hilarious and wise. If I had an ounce of humility or even simple self-awareness, I’d be too intimidated to respond. Fortunately, that isn’t a problem.

We know in our hearts that the cosmos speaks to us, but we don’t always get the message right. I read a book about this once. It started off happily enough with a chapter called Genesis and ended on an up-note with Revelation. In between though… Well, it wasn’t pretty.

Weirdly, my experiences on Eclipse Day spoke into the theme.

This was likely the last total solar eclipse to reach the states in my lifetime. So, even though we only got an 80% view in my area, I went outside to watch.

A local group had gathered. A speaker was blasting Spotify’s Eclipse playlist. A neighbor had generously set up a telescope with a protective lens. The glimpses were spectacular. Best of all, light clouds scudded by at the peak moment. They acted as a natural filter, giving me a split-second look at the phenomenon straight on.

I decided not to stay for the human sacrifice and returned to work. First, I read the Pope’s new declaration, Dignitas Infinita. Then I listened to Donald Trump’s statement on abortion. It was an odd experience. I don’t want to haggle over details but speaking very broadly: I disagreed with the Pope politically but agreed with him morally; I disagreed with Trump morally but agreed politically.

Again, being very general. The Pope spouted a lot of claptrap about economic redistribution, climate change, migrants, and capital punishment. But his central point that human dignity is not contingent on an individual’s condition is surely correct. An unborn child cannot be deprived of his right to life because he hasn’t yet full capabilities. His existence comes complete with the dignity that implies that right.

Therefore, Trump’s assertion that an unborn child’s survival should be subject to the will of the people is utter nonsense. But given that our pro-life efforts have so far led to political defeat and growing public support for abortion, an insistence on immediate victory can only cost more infant lives. A practical concern for the safety of the unborn makes it necessary to compromise where no compromise is morally acceptable.

So the cosmos speaks, not with the angel voices I’d prefer, but with the hardboiled realism of a Dashiell Hammett novel, or indeed of that Genesis-to-Revelation book I made reference to before.

It tells us that politics and morality, desire and self, matter and meaning, earth and heaven are broken asunder at a jagged edge and cannot, with all the might of man, be made whole in any moment of time. The omen tablets of superstition urge us to react with anger and judgment, hatred and despair. But a better science calls for love and tolerance, patience and forgiveness.

Only so—and slowly, slowly—will this fiery instant be totally eclipsed by eternity.

Dad