“...
dreams come with many cares, and a fool’s voice with many words.”
~Ecclesiastes 5:3 (NRSV)
Life is always best tinged in a superfast
coating of reality. And this is perhaps the Teacher’s point in Ecclesiastes 5. Unreality
promises creativity and imagination, but it delivers disillusionment and,
ultimately, despair.
There is a way of living that all
are commended to chase. But invariably we are given more to chasing dreams than
chasing reverence, humility, and, in those, deriving contentment. I guess we
are all guilty to some extent. We all lose the plot from time to time.
The more we dream, the Teacher
notes, the more we invest in our dreamy imaginations of ambition, the more
trouble is added to our outlook. Our cares multiply. When worldly cares are
added, contentment is taken away.
Ode To The Simple Life
Is there a
thing better than this,
A thing
that may be as solid as bliss?
Can it
come more simply today,
The order
of work, then come to play?
Simplicity
exults in the wisdom of life,
A life that avoids most common
strife.
***
The Teacher, of course, is
advocating, in the entire book of Ecclesiastes, the simple life. This is no
lazy person’s life, just a life so girded against idolatry. True wisdom is
known in the person who prefers reverence and humility as modes proffering
contentment.
Simplicity, in its supreme form,
is the solidity of bliss, because it journeys by the mechanism of wisdom. Is
there a better form of simplicity in finding our work, doing it, and then
resting, by enjoying our play? It leaves life as simple as that.
“Eat, drink, and be merry” is the
famed cliché ripped from the heart of Ecclesiastes.
We typically abuse the intent of
the wisdom ground deep into the simplicity of such a word. It simply means we
should eat and drink in moderation and enjoy the toil that we are given as part
of our lot.
The Pleasure In Being Grounded In
Reality
Perhaps it’s true that reality is
a hard thing. It is hard, but it’s nonetheless reliable. God is entirely
faithful in the revelation of existence. We know this by the undercurrent of
anxiety we all bear as part of the privilege of being human. What a paradoxical
wonder it is to be alive. We hate the pain of being alive, but we cannot
contemplate death.
But beyond dreaming enfolds us to
a certain pleasure in being grounded in reality; not protected by insufficient
and inadequate coping mechanisms. We don’t drown our sorrows or soothe jangling
nerves on alcohol, or numb ourselves on drugs, and we don’t give in to counterfeit
feelings more home in denial. The truth is we do. We dream. Then we face
trouble. By our rejections of simple truths in our lives we face trouble.
Better by far it is to train
ourselves into the love of reality—the acceptance of the very place God has
made for us. Let us be thankful.
***
Whilst dreams entertain the
imagination and fire our passions, reality is the reliable guide for life.
Reality advises us to be reverent and humble; giving us a simple contentment.
The simpler our lives, the more contented we will be.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
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