May 6, 2020
SHAGGY WISDOM
I recall a story about a university professor of philosophy who became obsessed with finding the meaning of life.
Prof. L___ abandons his family, cashes in all his assets and sets out on a search for the wise person who can answer his question of "What is the meaning of life?". His journey takes him to his philosophy professor at Harvard and thence to his professor at Oxford and on to the latter's teacher at the Sorbonne. At each encounter the professor is told that his interlocutor's teacher may have the answer. It turns into a journey of years, full of hardships, which eventually leads him to the "ultimate" guru in a cave on a mountaintop. The professor is physically and mentally at the end of his rope.
He staggers forward and says, "O holy guru, I have sacrificed everything, my family, my fortune and my academic career to find the answer to this question: What is the meaning of life?
The guru smiles and says, "Here is the answer: Life is a fountain."
The professor is stunned. "That's all you have to say?" "I have traveled for years, suffered countless miseries and the best you can offer me is the platitudinous "Life is a fountain?"
The guru is taken aback. With wide eyes he asks the professor, "You mean... life isn't a fountain?"
This story is usually considered to be an example of a "shaggy dog" story, a form of perverse humor in which the listener's expectations are built up through a long series of details, only to end with an ordinary finish. [The genre may have derived its name from the story of a person who enters his shaggy dog in contests for the shaggiest dog. He wins them all from the local contest up. They are all described in excruciating detail. Finally, at the world championships the judges look at his dog and say "That dog is not so shaggy." See, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaggy_dog_story/]
Although the guru story has the form of a shaggy dog story, I see deeper meaning in it. To me it shows that, even at the highest levels of wisdom, there must always be doubt. I say, "Beware of absolute certainty!" It contradicts the fundamental law of life and all existence. That is one of the reasons I feel comfortable designing the religion named LUCKISM®, which, like the sciences, has chance at its core and can never have absolute certainty about its fundamental premises. It's beauty is that, while its sacred essence is verifiable in many ways, that very fact also requires acceptance and respect for uncertainty. If I was to find myself sitting in a mountain cave and someone like myself comes with a question about the meaning of life I would say, "Life is interacting with the universe, subject to the dance of order and chance." That's better than a fountain - and filled with enough uncertainty and paradox to be true.
END
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