THE FORTUNE COOKIE CHALLENGE

The other night at the end of my Chinese dinner at Forbidden City, a fortune cookie presented me with a challenge:

What great things would you attempt
if you knew you could not fail?

Pondering this question later, I found many considerations coming to mind, but no immediate or self-evident answers.  I considered

•    Should the things I attempt be great for me (like writing a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel) or great for others (like winning the Nobel Peace Prize)?

•    Even if I could not fail to achieve the great objective I sought, what would be the effects of the struggle on me or others—what costs, what unintended consequences?

•    Is there not something good to be said for risking failure when attempting great things, for having victory come hard, not easy?  But then, perhaps “knowing you cannot fail” amounts to possessing great faith and confidence necessary to succeed at difficult tasks.

•    Then there’s the problem of deciding on something “great” to do.  “Great” in whose eyes and by what standards, measures or values?  Even if the standard is my own subjective judgment, if it simply amounts to “What feels great to me,” I may still doubt the worth of the venture.

Why this indecisiveness, I further wonder; why this internal resistance to imagining some great deeds to do (which is, I suppose, the motive of the fortune cookie writer in this instance)?  I guess I’m wary there’s a catch in the deal, some hidden kicker because great things don’t come easy.

But if they did—what then?

I would begin by delineating what seem to me to be the world’s major problems and needs.  Then I would invite you to discover other problems and needs to add to the list.  Finally, I’d urge us all to pitch in where we can.

Here’s my list, so far:

SOME OF THE WORLD’S 

MAJOR PROBLEMS AND NEEDS

1.    abundant clean energy

2.    adequate supplies of

        a.    food
        b.    clean water
        c.    income/wealth for all
        d.    health care and wellness programs

3.    cures and treatments for diseases and disorders

4.    nonviolent cultures of cooperation and partnership (instead of a dominator ethos)

5.    sciences that address questions, issues, and problems of highest importance for life to thrive.

6.    entertainments that are enriching and fulfilling, rather than mindless or debilitating

7.    educational opportunities designed to nourish the strongest aptitudes of all people and to cultivate their abilities.

8.    empathy: the root of the Golden Rule, the ability to feel what others feel compassionately, and the will to alleviate their suffering and not contribute to it.

With more time and thought I’ll come up with others, as will you, I hope.

Meanwhile, if I have not yet made any great attempts in these directions, I stand ready to applaud and encourage any who are doing so or will do so.  As the poet Goethe is said to have said:

"What you can do, or dream you can, begin it!
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."

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YES, BUT

It’s true we come to nothing in the end,
As dust returns to dust when life is done,
And what this life is, who can comprehend?
A mystery proceeding from the sun,
Its energy contrived to animate
Mere lifeless clods, inspiring the inert
To grow in consciousness and ruminate
On its superiority to dirt.

But soon our little cycle is complete,
Our blaze of luminescence gutters out,
The victory of life ends in defeat,
We never understand what it’s about.
And yet we had the chance to seize each day,
Which nothing, no not death, could take away.

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DEAR . . .

Fewer and fewer written communications these days, I notice, begin with the formal salutation, “Dear . . . .”

Perhaps because that word now sounds quaint or prissy or too intimate or formal, “Dear” is clearly on the wane.

Nowadays, “Hi” or “Hey” are breezier ways to open an email or a rare posted letter (most likely a greeting card).

But I’m determined, fuddy-duddily perhaps, to stick with “Dear” because I hear respect in it, as in the even more archaic greeting, “Esteemed colleagues, . . . .”

“Dear” implies more than sentimental endearment; it signifies value, as in “Worthy friends.”  “Dear” means rare and precious but, even more, it confers dignity upon the addressee, and I, for one, support the prospect of living in a dignitarian society—Dear me, Dear you.

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WISDOM IS AS WISDOM DOES

You and I are not wise. No one is wise, not even Socrates, because the idea of wisdom pertains not to persons but to thoughts and to actions. Thoughts and actions that serve to bring about what is valuable in life to ourselves and others are wise.

Therefore we may think wisely and act wisely, exhibiting wise behavior more or less in various situations, but no one is wholly established in wisdom; no one is exempt from stupid or foolish behaviors because, as Alexander Pope said, “to err is human.”

The best we can do is to train our minds and emotions by practicing disciplines that discern what is most valuable and then achieve it.

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PARADISE FOUND

When Milton set about his task to push
Pentameters beyond where they had gone
Before, beyond where even Shakespeare trod
In his magniloquent and rare blank verse,
He called on Muses who inspired old bards
But also on the One who spoke to Moses
And other prophets of the Pentateuch
To aid him in his holy enterprise.

That he was blind by then ironically
Allowed him inner visions undisturbed
By temporalities of here and now;
Instead, he gazed upon eternity
Seeing the universe as integral,
And found that history is purposeful.

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SHAKESPEARIENCE

Shakespeare’s dramatic language, especially in verse, is artfully eloquent, and as far above common conversation as operatic singing exceeds plain speech.

One should not wish it otherwise, though we must take pains to lift our understanding and admiration to its loftiness.

If at first we need to consult explanatory notes to paraphrase and translate Shakespeare’s script to our clear comprehension, we then must return to the lofty original to savor its sounds and rhythms—its specifically poetical and oratorical qualities—thus embellishing our mere understanding.

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EPITAPH

Johann Faustus was my name,
Fame and fortune my one aim.
I sold my soul for world acclaim
—To my now everlasting shame.

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