Posted by
Sam Heath on Saturday, December 01, 2007 1:44:17 PM
We all know life consists of injustices, but in many cases it has been a mystery why this is so? Well, I believe I have discovered one very important element of the mystery. As though in a vision it seemed to come to me that I have always needed someone to tell me what to do, rather than someone telling me what I should have done. My life has been plagued by those who with a vast amount of presumed prescience and expertise in dissecting all the most infinitesimal parts of human errors could tell me following some disaster, “You shouldn’t have done that.” And so, in one of my ongoing arguments with myself I wonder where is the person to tell me what to do, rather than what I should have done? Well of course, following the disaster I realized I shouldn’t have done what precipitated the disaster, but where was this person that should have been there telling me what to do before it happened; always conspicuous by their absence. But it never fails; this person always shows up after the fact telling me “You shouldn’t have done that.”
This peculiar vision has concluded the person that should have been there telling me what to do is a phantom, and only materializes after I have done something really stupid. While there are many who believe in guardian angels, often with good cause, these ethereal beings seem to be quite selective; and at times I have reason to believe may even be eccentric.
The reason I believe this about guardian angels is the many times I have done something only to have it become a disaster that left me questioning why on earth I ever believed it was a good idea at the time? We all know the various adult guidance units surrounding children are responsible for teaching them about the many dangers to which children are exposed. But having survived childhood with all its attendant dangers, shouldn’t I have outgrown doing some really stupid, life-threatening things? Apparently not; since I continue to allow curiosity to get the better of me. How many have met their demise looking at a button with the question “I wonder what that thing will do?” and then pushed the button. Boom!
Of course, such “buttons” come in all shapes and sizes. But when you have no idea what some button will do, why as though urged on by some mischievous genii do some of us insist on pushing that button? And if you survive, there is the enduring question: Why did I think it was a good idea at the time? Alas, the plaintive cry of survivors is met by stony, but seeming accusatory silence.
Intrigued as I am by the opening chapters of Genesis, one idea is Adam and Eve were the progenitors of the famed Darwin Award. Unfortunately for humankind, they survived just long enough to pass on their stupid genes to those like me who continue valiantly in their efforts to win this award. Not the least of the injustices in my life is despite my very best efforts to continually be frustrated in my seeking this award. Modesty forbids and I won’t weary the reader with my varied efforts; suffice it to say I am living proof of the eccentricities of guardian angels, or perhaps the Fates who seem to have their eccentricities as well.
For example, who or what decides this person gets one chance at doing something really stupid, and this other gets a dozen chances to survive doing really stupid things? But whether one or a dozen, you can depend on that phantom that wasn’t there to tell you what to do, but materializes afterward in the form of a wife, husband, friend, or other saying “You shouldn’t have done that.”
One needn’t look far to discover the stupid genes of Adam and Eve in the leaders of nations. How many of them seem to be contenders for a Darwin Award? Many appear to believe stupidity a virtue, and practice it at every opportunity. The mad mullahs of Islam while in a class of stupid of its own, there remains our own White House and Congress that seems determined in a direction of perfecting stupidity. And as I consider these and those presently on the campaign trail I’m left asking, notwithstanding the Darwin Award, is this the best that evolutionists can come up with to make their case? Whatever one’s beliefs, there is no doubt in my mind world leaders seem bent on winning the ultimate Darwin Award for the entire world.