Divinity

Post date: May 22, 2013 1:56:01 AM

This piece of prose was originally written on May 27, 2011 and posted on Facebook.

It is a strange place I find myself sometimes when a simple action by another leads me down a philosophical conversation that plays out in my own mind.

A moment of faith is witnessed as a man sits down, his meal before him, and he bows his head and clasps his hands together to offer up a simple prayer of thanks. What a beautiful thing to have seen, here is someone who truly believes in the divine and the blessings that they can invoke.

I look down at my own meal, I am fortunate as many - far too many - do without. If I choose to eat it completely, or not, it will not help those others. It will go to waste. My portion is modest, it will satisfy my needs, and I will take pleasure in the complex flavors it has to offer. But that it is here before me, to nourish me, is an act of the divine.

I may not adhere to a specific religion, I know that I am best described as agnostic. Yet there is a deep need for ritual and belief for most human beings. To try to understand and explain the world... the universe... around us. It is this need that has inspired acts both grand and diminutive. This thirst for knowledge that has led to landing a man on the moon, digitalizing some of the great works of art... to seek out new life.

A moment, so long ago that it is difficult to comprehend, when all that we do know (and so much that we don't) began. Why did it begin? What drives us to seek knowledge? Why are there things that happen that we have no explanation for? Why do we have personalities? Why do we love? Why do we hate? The fact that all this does exist, and without explanation, is the core of believing... of having faith.

That I exist, through the miracle of birth, is in itself an act of the divine. But that is true of all living creatures. I am the embodiment of an infinitesimal amount of that which is divine. What prayer can I give to offer thanks for the food before me? But I am grateful for all that I have. It allows me to contemplate such things, as thoughts of the divine.

I look up and see the man enjoying his meal, I ponder what quiet contemplation is going on in his own mind. Then I see the goslings out the window, feeding yet again on whatever goslings feed on when walking upon the grass.

I wonder if goslings contemplate about the divine....