Honestly, do I live in a world where reason has been cast aside? Do I walk through life’s misty valleys alone in the firm conviction that man exists and still evolves by passion alone? Was it not the fervent rejection of sudden death in the face of eminent danger that drove our ancestors to beat back the elements, to tame the wild? Was in not a single-minded dedication to uncover the mysteries of worlds both sacred and secular that gave birth to the Reformation and the Renaissance? When in the concurrent social ebbs and flows of civilized history did passion cease to be marked among the virtues?
Men are morally obliged to withhold gratuitous conjecture; else, at best, redress may be found in passionate refutation, at worst, in apathy. It is one thing to hate the opinion of a peer, it is quite another to nothing it. This evening I found myself struggling to find worth in the opinion of a friend. I would have settled for nothing more than a hint of value, but such satisfaction evaded me. I guess the sage of Rock and Roll, Mick Jagger, was right, “you can’t always get what you want.” In truth, I would be amiss if I were to say that his opinion fell on deaf ears. For I find myself still pondering his assertions. I am guilty, so he alleges of viewing life too personally, too seriously, and too literally.
Is this not a quintessential display of paradox? For if on the one hand he is correct, his advice would be to not take his own critique personally, seriously, or literally, thus rendering his conjecture valueless. However, even if his assertions are false in the long run, I must make them true in the short run. To establish the false nature of the assertions, I must, in effect make them true by taking personally, seriously and literally the very proposition that I take things personally, seriously and literally.
But what of it if it is true? Is that not simply a display of passion? I stand by the conviction that the majority of my mortal experiences fall somewhere between apathy and mild amusement in my how-much-do-I-give-a-damn spectrum. But I am not cast to and fro with every wind of doctrine, as he contends. I choose, with intense deliberation, the doctrines I adopt. And I am ever aware of the direction those winds blow.
That being said, the doctrines I choose, both sacred and secular, I defend with fierceness and only a select few of those doctrines are canonized into a personal ethical, emotional, and logical foundation upon which I am constantly remodeling the superstructure of my life. It is these few doctrines that I unapologetically take very personally, very seriously, and very literally.
I am told to be moderate in all things, but I believe that we must be moderate in the moderation of all things, for moderation can be the death knell of progress. It is toward these few core doctrines that I harness a passionate loyalty. They are universal.
- God is my dad, and he loves me because I am his son.
- My objective in mortality is the acquisition of virtue.
- The grace of Christ empowers me to shed vice.
- Absolute virtue can only be practiced in absolute liberty.
All other approaches, perspectives, or paradigms that are evident in the expressive construct of my life, are simply appendages of those four core principles. I am forever engaged in the acquisition of new ideas. I filter them through the prism of that canon. Only with that tool can I discern eternal truths from the sophistries and false philosophies of men. But mastering that canonical prism, learning to separate that truth from friction, requires a deliberate and skillful application both objective and subjective reasoning.
Perhaps my friend, observing my oafish, unskillful blundering with regards to this reasoned experimentation, extrapolates that I am being buffeted by Satan’s zephyrous pomp, like tumble weed bounding forth, enslaved by the dictates of the wind. Though I would never be so bold as to proclaim that Satan has no influence upon me, I do believe we give him far too much credit. I realize that my greatest enemy is my own human nature, not the threat of demonic temptation or possession. To that end, I am thankful for those four principles and my habitually moderate approach to the moderation of the passion I feel for them. That personal, serious, and literal passion that bleeds from every pour will one day lead me back home to live with my dad.