There is nothing so elaborate as a lie nor so simple as
the truth. Though truth may be heaped
upon truth to create the most complex and intricate structures, each of its
principle parts are stunningly simple.
So it is that a few subatomic particles come together and form an atom
and so along the chain until we end with a living organism or the Mona Lisa or
a universe. Consider all those heresies
of living tissue: death, disease, injury, and anything else that mars the
physical self of an organism. Cancer is
nothing but a cellular lie. One cell
decides to be something that it is not: an entity unto itself and starts to
multiply and grow, regardless the cost to its brother cells and the creature as
a whole. It will eventually kill its
host if radical means are not used to destroy it. It is trying to be an organism in its own right
little thinking it can survive without its host and when the host dies so too
shall the cancer. So it is with all
lies; they are a twisting of that which is already there, a mutation of the
simple and elegant into the profane and grotesque. This concept applies as much to stories as it
does to life. The Fairy Stories are true
in that they are simple, often simpler than the strange concoctions that pass
for literature in this modern era. For
unlike many stories, the fairy tales at least function in a truthful
universe. There is nothing sadder than a
fictional tale without set laws that must be adhered to except in the case of
miracles. These rules need not be the
same as those in our own tale, but they must be consistent. If a species survives by metabolizing
atmospheric nitrogen it cannot spontaneously become an avid vegetarian save by
divine intervention.
Perhaps that is why people love fairy stories and they
endure when so many ‘classic’ or much applauded books have vanished from common
memory. Sometimes the fairy stories make
more sense than our own twisted reality, but then that is because we forget we
are actually living in a fairy tale! The
problem is not that our own reality lacks a set of laws but that people are
unsure what those laws are. The idea of
a common moral law and the requisite moral law Giver has gained something of a
notorious view of late and is classed in the category of mythology right along
with unicorns and dragons. But that is
not to say there is not such a thing as a unicorn, but there is certainly such
a thing as a moral law. We all want the
world to be good, it is not, and we know it is not; therefore there must be a
reason for this lack of goodness and our notice of the dearth. For why would we pine for a good world if
such an ideal did not exist? So
something went wrong long ago before once upon a time and we long above all
else to return to the ideal of happily ever after. We also know, deep down no matter how much we
fight or deny it, that there is such a thing as right and wrong; just as much
as we know there is a law of gravity. If
unthinking molecules must abide by a set of rules, so too must the higher
organisms, most especially man.
Otherwise, how is it that we complain when our own ‘rights’ are trespassed
upon? If we had no ‘rights’ then we
would have nothing to complain about, but as we have ‘rights,’ there must be
something innate within each of us that is aware of such things and knows how
one person ought to treat another.
So we have a moral law and a broken world, but what
now? Besides our sense of inherent
rights and responsibilities, and this sense that all is not happy in paradise,
we also all yearn for a purpose and meaning along with a restored paradise. So we desperately need a giver of moral law,
a cure for our rotting world, and a giver of direction and meaning. It is the perfect recipe for a fairy
tale! So what then is the answer to the
deepest riddle of our hearts? Once long
ago when the world was young and good, there dwelt a man named Adam…who broke
the world…and then after many long years of darkness and doubt, a child was
born…to die that the world might be restored…and as the tales say, we shall
live happily ever after, meaning forever and ever if we can but believe the
story!
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