Reuven, when my Daniel was four years old, I saw him reading a story from a book. And I was frightened. . . . It was a story in a Yiddish book about a poor Jew and his struggles to get to Eretz Yisroel before he died. Ah, how that man suffered! And my Daniel enjoyed the story, he enjoyed the last terrible page, because when he finished it he realized for the first time what a memory he had. . . . I went away and cried to the Master of the Universe, 'What have you done to me? A mind like this I need for a son? A heart I need for a son, a soul I need for a son, compassion I want from my son, righteousness, mercy, strength to suffer and carry pain, that I want from my son, not a mind without a soul!'
- The Chosen, by Chaim Potok
How often am I like Daniel! It's so easy as an intellectual to go through systems of philosophy, to preach the benefits of one set of ethics over another, to go through abstruse metaphysical points as merely a mind. It really is only recently that I seem to be able to feel the suffering in a text at all rather than note it as one piece of information that helps me to understand the story.
(btw, credit for recommending the book, which has been a rewarding read, goes primarily to my uncle, Dr. Corduan, for bringing it up in Western Religions years ago, and secondly to Dr. VanGemeren who mentioned something by Potok in a recent Intro to OT course which reminded me that I should read it)
In other news, I think I got my boss to change my hours at Starbuck's to a more humane time. 4:45 in the morning (at night?) is just not right, and 5:45 isn't much better.
