So What?

I guess that i just don't get it sometimes. It amazes me how important it is to people, how important it is to me at times, to win. As time has gone by i'm starting to recognize more and more how driven we are, not only to do well and succeed, but to be number 1. Not that being number one is necessarily bad, but too often being number one comes at the cost of everything / everyone else.

I like to watch movies sometimes. They can be very entertaining. Every movie has a lesson. Every movie has a purpose. Every movie attempts to teach you something. At least every good movie does. Time and time again what i see in movies is the attempt to succeed. It is the attempt to overcome. It is the attempt to defeat everyone else and come out on top against all odds. It's about showing / proving to someone or something that you are better than them. There have been a couple of movies that i have seen lately that have had this common pattern, this common theme, and when i see them i walk away wondering, "So what?"

So the main character won, so what! He beat his opponent. He beat him soundly, so what! All he succeeded in doing is proving that he could win. The character won the battle, but in the end he lost the war. He overcame all of the obstacles. He defeated all the challenges. He succeeded! He won! So what? I saw a movie recently, i don't remember what it was, but i do remember walking away thinking. He won, who cares. I think that the statement would have been stronger and the movie better if he had in showing that he could win, instead of destroying and humiliating his opponent, rather let go and let his opponent win. I think it would have turned the movie from a mediocre one to a blockbuster. Instead, it was all about winning at the cost of everyone / everything else. Maybe the opponent deserved it? So what? Is the success worth the price? It's funny what people are capable of, what i am capable of, when it's all about Me, the big "I".

Image from Robby Garbett used under cc license.

Man: "You Can Take the Man Out of the Wilderness, but You Can't Take the Wilderness Out of the Man"

Everybody knows that there are differences between men and women. Some try to deny them and state that the only difference are those created by our societies in order to push women down, but it doesn't take a genius to recognize the obvious problems with that argument. Either way we're not here to argue that debate at this point. I did want to help us understand better how and why some of those diffences came to be.

As a stereotype (thus not 100% the case) women tend to seek comfort and luxury while men tend to seek mastery and experience. Believe it or not, the reason for this can be easily seen in the first two chapers of Genesis. When God created man on day 7 of creation, he was the last thing that God created. He was formed in the midst of God's other creations. As has been noted before, everything that God created on each of those 7 days relied upon what had been created before. In order for the seas and oceans to be sustained, they need heat & light or they would turn to ice. Land without water, heat, & light is just rock & dust. So on and so forth. The same thing with man. In order to survive man needs everything created before him.

What is interesting to note is that man was created in the wilderness. He was created on the 7th day after all of the water, land, plants, and animals had been created, but notice this...
Genesis 2:7-8 "And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And (after this) Jehovah God planted a garden eastward in Eden. And there He put the man whom He had formed."

Man existed in the wilderness before the Garden of Eden was ever planted. As a result, when man looks for relaxation and a break from the daily grind, oftentimes he wants to go fishing, or camping, or hunting, or he wants to be out playing sports, etc. He seeks and enjoys the challenge of the outdoors... of the wilderness. Golf for instance is all about mastery over the environment. It is man seeking to have mastery over both the land and the little ball. It is man and his simple tool (his club) proving mastery over a miles of land and a little white ball.

The comfort and luxury of the garden was created after man. It's nice, and good, and all, but it just doesn't compare to the wilderness and our need and desire to gain mastery over it. Thus deep down inside that desire and craving exists in all men. You can take the man out of the wilderness, but you can never truly take the wilderness out of the man.

... more next week!


Image from thatjonesboy used under cc license.