Beowulf Versus Gandhi!

As we discussed Rosa Parks today in class, the word hero came up a lot. Rosa Parks is indeed a modern day hero, but what type of hero is she? The myth suggests she a quiet, simple, loving, innocence, and I think most importantly, passive person. In her myth, a story that resonated across the country and still touches hearts today, Rosa Parks was a hero that was oppressed by people more powerful than her, and she rose up against them with non violence. We love this idea of a peaceful hero, and it seems that within the last decade or two, these are the ones that last. Rosa Parks, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, all non violent activists that spoke against injustice without a single violent act. But if you look farther back, it’s actually the opposite. Ancient heroes, the stuff of legends and folktales. I, for some reason, instantly think of Beowulf. He was written about as a hero, and in his tale, he was considered a hero by both his men and his followers, but Beowulf became a hero not through peace, but through bloody savage fighting. Even though Beowulf may be thought of today as a blood thirst warlord, this legend has lasted hundreds of hundreds of years, which means it obviously resonated when it was created (or it actually happened. It hard to prove if the stories of Beowulf are actually true).

It’s bizarre to look at the bigger picture, and realize how the idea

of a hero has changed with history. People like Beowulf, physically strong, brave, noble, and violent, versus Gandhi, weak, oppressed, strong willed, brave, virtuous, and peaceful. So which is a hero and which isn’t? Or are they both heroes? Well, I think the hero is all in the eyes of the beholder, the situation, and the time period. So basically, there is not cookie cutter hero. But what then, makes a hero a hero, and not just another really good person? That’s another post for another day.

The Bible Code: Yeah its confusing!

I just finished watching a television show on the Bible Code. The Bible Code is believed to be a mathematical system, in which you count the letters of the torah, and then, like a crossword puzzle, pull words out of the block of letters you get. Sounds confusing. Well it is. Those words then seem to come together to create prophecies and even tell the future, by bunching common words together. Sounds iffy. Well it is. Sounds controversial. Yeah, it’s that also. But I don’t want to argue whether or not the bible code exists, I’m far more interested in why we care.

Why do we go looking for a code like this, and why, once we find one, is it so intriguing? I believe it’s because we, as humans, all yearn for one thing. Purpose. When we find something like a code, that in a way makes sense of all the things going on in our world, and has the potential to tell our future, we feel drawn to it because it makes us feel like we have a path, it’s a meaning for our own existence.

As I watched this show, and all these people argued for their sides of the story, I was drawn to the fact that we are even having this argument at all. It’s so interesting to think about how much we love prophecy. Even if we think it’s completely unrealistic, we can’t help but listen. We can’t help but be shocked by those that for one reason or another come true, or others that frighten us. It’s classic human nature to want to know what our futures are, what the stars may hold for us, and I think it plays into our eternal drive and need for a purpose in life. Once again, it makes people feel like we have a path, a destiny, that we aren’t just wandering the earth blindly. In a way, if someone says they can predict our future, whether we believe it or not, it makes us feel like we have a future to look forward to.

Another Thought on Sins

Here's something else to think about relating to my last blog post. I talked about envy, and how it may be just misunderstood. I asked if envy could possibly be a good thing, a necessary thing, and not the evil thing we are taught from birth.

What about greed? Think about our economy, and Wall Street, and the materialistic community we are. Could greed be a good thing?

A Not So Deadly Sin?

Envy. It’s one of the seven deadly sins. It is something that, nearly from birth, we are trained is evil. It is often associated with the devil, sin, and bad people, but what about biology and necessity? I’m not talking about jealousy, because jealousy is linked with love. Envy, at its core, is disdain for another person because they possess something that you do not. So what role has this “evil” thing played in history?

Sure you think of warlords and medieval Europe, the whole my castle is bigger than your castle thing, but I’m talking positive. Is envy a positive thing? Sounds crazy right?

I don’t believe it’s all that crazy. I think envy is beyond important. At first it is hard to break out of our molds to think about something like envy in a positive way, but envy is actually biologically necessary. Imagine the earth a few million years ago, and a monkey is out collecting food. It comes home with three nuts, only to discover that another monkey in the tribe collected five nuts! That monkey gets envious of the extra food and vows to collect more nuts next time he is out. Now this story may seem like a stretch, but hopefully the main idea got across. Envy, in a way, actual wills the evolution process. Envy, a somehow trivial feeling, is anything but! Are brains may possibly be wired to be envious in a way to make us want to be better, and feel that it is necessary to be better than we are!

But that’s not all! Imagine its implications today, in modern society. Look at the United States, a completely consumer driven society. Think about the man the returns home from work, and discovers that his neighbor has purchased a new car. He instantly dislikes his neighbor for his new purchase, and the only way he can strike back is by buying a new, better car. So he works extra hard for that big bonus, helping his company, then buys that expensive car, therefore stimulating the economy!

In more ways than those two, envy is vital to our world. It could be vital to the very evolutionary process that made us what we are today and it is more than vital to running our country. 2/3 of our economy is run by consumers, and imagine what would happen to the economy if every person decided they were happy with what they had!
So wait. Is envy really as evil as we preach it to be? Isn’t envy the very thing that runs our countries, runs the animal world, and even our world? Or is it truly evil, something that makes us materialistic and bitter? Well that’s for you to decide, but I think this deadly sin deserves to be rethought a little.