This is March

And with it come a lot of thoughts. Reading time: 7 minutes.

So I've been here in Rome for a few days. And I haven't posted any pictures in a while. Thus, you are probably thinking to yourself "What gives?"

Well first, it has been really rainy and cold out here this past week. Once you get used to 50-degree weather, a random 30-degree high seems suddenly bitter and you want nothing to do with any of its kind. Therefore, I didn't travel around too much (hence, no pictures). And that's cool, because I got a lot of reading and thinking and writing done. The fruits of this hiatus are what follow.

I start with a quote. One of my good friends said this through his "public" medium:

Everything in this world has a purpose. It may take some searching but most will find it easily enough. Albeit important, it is more the realization and understanding of that purpose that gives a life meaning. So, if you find that one special person that gives your life meaning, hold on to that person. Love and cherish them with all of your heart for without them you have no purpose. Without a purpose, you have no meaning. And without a meaning what is the use of life?

A very bright philosophical insight; one, I think, that came through one of those "moments" when everything seems to click. Having experienced such moments-- in fact, even since I've been out here-- and since this quote applies directly to what I have been thinking as of late, I wanted to comment on it.


I have been wondering this week: "is it the realization that something has a purpose that gives life meaning? OR, is it the realization that life has a purpose (and therefore, has meaning) well before I came to such a realization?"

In other words, I have been wondering: does life have a purpose without my thinking about it? (Or, more succinctly, is there an intrinsic meaning in life?)

Well, while in Rome, I have been walking on 2000-year old roads, visiting 6th century BC ruins, touring the heart of the Roman Catholic Church, an even praying at the Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital where the Pope currently resides. History-- in fact, humankind-- is so tangible and real and interconnected, and in such a way that our actions (now) influence the "now" and the future. But, we can also influence the past. I could, if I really wanted to, put graffiti on some ancient ruins. Some people have.

Our works have a purpose. This is undeniable. For those people who do graffiti on ancient ruins, such purpose of that work may have been for the pleasure of it or just to communicate to other groups. Who knows. But, their works had a purpose and, therefore, a meaning. All of our works do. This is undeniable.

Do I have to actually realize: "What I am doing right now has meaning" for my acts to have a meaning? No. Most certainly not.

Does an understanding of me having a meaningful life deepen my enjoyment and my wonder? Yes, most certainly.

So, realizing that life has a meaning is not so much important as the meaning that comes before that realization. When I prayed at Gemelli for the Pope today, were my prayers effective because I realized that they were effective? OR, were they effective because prayer is, by its very nature, effective?

Of course, the answer is the latter.

Well, why do I go into all of this? Because, it is the next line of the quote that is amazing: "if you find that one special person that gives your life meaning, hold on to that person. Love and cherish them with all of your heart for without them you have no purpose."

If we say that our prayers are effective by their very nature (that is, effective without us having to realize that they are effective), and if we say that we have meaning without us having to realize that we have meaning, then we have meaning by our very nature.

Well, who created us? Who gave us our very nature? GOD.

Therefore, it is God who gives our life meaning.

And what does this quote say to do with that special person who gives our life meaning? "hold on to that person. Love and cherish them with all of your heart for without them you have no purpose."

Truly then, HOLD ON TO GOD! LOVE AND CHERISH HIM WITH ALL YOUR HEART. FOR WITHOUT HIM YOU HAVE NO PURPOSE!

God has very much become and is a true, living, breathing person. He took on human flesh and became man. He experienced our entire range of emotions-- from the greatest happiness and joy to the deepest sadness. He felt pain and even experienced death. This person is Christ!

Christ is so real! I have walked up the steps that he walked up at Pontius Pilate's palace. I have seen the wood of his stable crib. I have been to places where thousands of people-- people who knew he was real-- died because they knew him-- knew him truly and died because of that knowledge: they knew that this person was and is God!

They knew that without this person, without God-- without Them, the Creator and Savior and Sender (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)-- those who were about to be martyred were dead anyway, for "without Them they had no purpose."


Therefore, hold on to this person: Christ. Hold on to them: God. "Love and cherish them."

And how do we truly love and cherish someone? We get to know them. We find out why we should serve them. Just as guys are supposed to get to know and serve their girlfriends-- and in doing so, get to love and cherish them-- so too are we to do in order to love and cherish God.

How do we do this? Through prayer. Through serving others-- for "others" (as we all are) are made in the image and likeness of God. In serving others we are serving God. And in praying to God we get to know him.

He already knows all about us and he loves us infinitely.

And if our life has meaning because of him and our enjoyment and wonder of life only increase by realizing this meaning-- that is, by coming to know God-- then, maybe today is a good time for us to start to know God.


"... let us pray..."

This is Keats

On my way back from St. Paul Outside the Walls basilica, I happened upon an old Protestant Cemetary. The first rule of adventuring: "be curious." So I went in... and found the grave of one John Keats.

K-eats! if thy cherished name be "writ in water"
E-ach drop has fallen from some mourner's cheek;
A-sacred tribute: such as heroes seek,
T-hough oft in vain-- for dazzling deeds of slaughter
S-leep on! Not honoured less for Epitaph so meek!

And, when I got home, Lisa informed me that we had happened upon his grave on the anniversary of his death. Crazy.

Member: Dead Poets Society. 184 years.