Читать книгу The Great Reduction - Jay Trott - Страница 22

Another take on the same idea. It is literally impossible to number that which is wanting.

We have theories or accountings of government laid down over the ages by the wisest sages, but no one has ever counted up the perfect government. Much of the time it is not even clear to us what is holding the world together, other than sheer inertia.

We have seen many marvelous medical advances, but we cannot take away crippling arthritis; we cannot cure cancer; if someone has “essential hypertension” we cannot make it unessential; if someone has tinnitus, we cannot make his ears stop ringing.

The more minute our measurements become, the more we see that no amount of labor will ever amount to a full accounting. The human body alone is so complex with its complementary systems and redundancies that literally hundreds of peer-reviewed journals are dedicated to trying to understand it.

The stars in the sky—who has counted them? Or the molecules in a fingernail? Who has counted up weather systems and fully understands them? We can see the effects, but the causes remain hidden from our eyes. The best we can do is to jump in at some vantage point and try to defend our hypothesis.

And alas, our own behavior cannot be counted. We think and say one thing but do another. Paul has a brilliant description of this in Romans. We can love what is good, and will to do what is good, but we still wind up doing the very thing we resolved not to do.

Most of all, what is lacking in us is life. This difference cannot be counted. The philosopher cannot overcome the difference between life and mortal life through the full accounting of his wisdom. But then his wisdom cannot give him the thing he desires most.

Just how wise is the wisest man in the world if what is lacking cannot be counted? If he lacks happiness, how can he count himself happy? Solomon is beginning to see that wisdom has its limits. And this is personal for him, because he sought his identity in wisdom.

Solomon made it his life’s ambition to become wise by counting what is lacking. Now he is beginning to entertain the possibility that what is lacking cannot be counted.