Neat blog

The ultra POD Dominican nuns in Summit, New Jersey are one order I have been rather interested in lately. Ahhhhh, my great personal conundrum: Carmelite or Dominican? Carmelite or Dominican? Carmelite or Dominican or wintertime white wedding? Hmmmm. Anyway, the point is that they have a fantastic new blog. Yay! I am happy! And that is really all that matters, according to the electric sign in Gordy Hall!*

PS: Check out their page on what they do all day. See, they don't just sit around doing nothing! :) Unlike, for instance, me.

*A while back I was stalking out of the Language Lab in Gordy Hall, deflated and depressed by my inability to grasp the semantic difference between the French prochaine as used in la semaine prochaine and la prochaine fois. In the Hall lobby, there is a red electronic bulletin sign a la Times Square in New York: The messages go by at a pace fit to produce a dizzy spell and are often in other languages (since foreign languages are Gordy's academic discipline). Anyway, this particular day there was a message (in English) that read: "The most important thing is that you be happy" or words to that effect.

Now, honest to goodness, I was under the impression that this was a university, and not merely the hatching nest for thousands of little denizens of the forth-coming utilitarian pleasure-palace utopia that America is destined to become. Think of all the abjectly miserable people who have contributed astronomically to human advancement. Poe was miserable. Lincoln was miserable. Dostoevsky did not have a happy life. Neither did Beethoven, Van Gogh ... You get the drift.

The point is that suffering is not the worst possible evil. The worst possible evil is accepting, believing, and living what is false. In other words, the most IMPORTANT thing is the truth. Not what will make you happy - either today or in the long-run. It's the old question of the pleasure machine - (Leslie, do you remember Tad? Auuuugh) - if you could, would you choose to permanently hook yourself up to a machine that could give you endless pleasure - that could simulate a life of fame, wealth, or bliss - even if it would all be a lie?

(If you've read Brave New World you sort of know what I'm talking about. Huxley's characters live blissful, thoughtless, robotic lives in which everything is completely controlled by the state via drugs. Interestingly, the only "libertine" element is sex, which is promiscuous and casual, thanks to the fact that conception is next to impossible and procreation occurs in government laboratories. "Mother" and "Father" are their equivalent of dirty words. Many commentaries on the text link this situation to our present day obsession with birth control. So imagine my amusement when, the next time I was in Gordy Hall, the red electric board flashed: "It's a gift to the world not to have children." Hmmmm. I thought the children were supposed to be gifts.)

Of course, no one likes suffering. We might admit that pain might be good for us, that it can build our characters and give us new insight into truth, but even so, no one "enjoys" suffering. Even some Christians today run away from the Cross. Catholics are usually accused of being too involved in the Crucifixion, with all its suffering, blood and pain; but even some of us tend to mimic the "feel good" TV preachers when we say - "Oh, it's much too violent and depressing. Let's focus on the Resurrection." Yes, that's obviously essential. But you only get to Easter Sunday by way of Good Friday.

Obviously it's not OU's job to promote the Christian idea of redemptive suffering. But I am pretty sure that universities are supposed to be focused on the truth - scientific, economic, philosophical, artistic - and not on what you can get by popping a bottle full of happy pills.

Geez. This belongs in a post by itself and not stuck on the end of a post about the nice Dominicans. I'll post a little on Brave New World, and a bit on Catholic sexual things (it will surprise you!). Sorry for the rant ...