I was born without a theory. About anything. I didn’t know up from down – literally, since I had just emerged from a watery and weightless womb.

            But from that instant on, I started creating theories to help me make sense of the world I found myself in. Everyone does. We figure out that moms are warm, soft, and soothing. Floors are hard. Smiles make big people smile back.

            As time passes, we develop theories about everything. As we amass more experience, those theories get more sophisticated, better at predicting outcomes. We figure out that compliments generate more support than criticism, for example. That men and women are different. That blue-chip stocks are a safer investment than snake oil or swampland.

            And, for the most part, we modify our theories to take account of new facts as they emerge.

Catching a train

            Seth Godin’s marketing blog got me thinking about our theories. Suppose, he wrote, you catch the 7:20 a.m. train every morning to go to work in the city. You develop a theory that the train comes at that time every day. Your theory works fine. Until you get called to work one Saturday, and there’s no train at 7:20.

            “Now you need a new theory,” Godin wrote, “that the train comes at 7:20 on weekdays only. And you'll keep working with that new theory, and most of the time, it'll get what you want.”

            But, as Godin noted, we can get too attached to our theories. We start to believe they’re infallible. When reality doesn’t agree with our theories, we’d rather reject the facts than revise the theory.

            What we actually do, I think, is invent new theories to explain a train’s failure to arrive when we expected it.

·      Mexican immigrant rail workers.

·      Corporate corruption. Or global trade pacts. Beyond our control, anyway.

·      The president promised to get trains running on time, and he will. Trust him.

·      The train is actually on time; the clocks are wrong.

·      Direct consequence of planetary conjunctions.

·      Black cat crossed the road, on your way to the train station.

            You see, instead of re-examining the evidence and revising our theories, we find someone to blame. We accept assurances from authority figures. We hunt for contrary evidence. We clutch at superstitions.

            “We double down on random causes and unrelated effects,” as Godin put it.

Making amendments

            Granted, train schedules are a superficial example. But the reactions aren’t. I see them being applied, every day.

            In politics and in business.

            In passionate opposition to climate change, evolution, or vaccinations.

            Even in our belief systems. Perhaps, because of early teaching or life experience, you think of God as a divine judge, dispensing rewards to the good and punishments to sinners.

            Then your spouse gets cancer. You know she did nothing to deserve a premature and painful death.

            Do you amend your theories about God? Or do you “double down” and insist that God must be right, must know something you don’t, it will all work out in heaven, the Bible tells you so?

            Seth Godin’s point is that these are all theories. All of them. They’re a way of making sense of the world. If they no longer make sense, they need to be modified.  

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Copyright © 2017 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.

            To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca

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YOUR TURN

Ah, snowblowers, independence, aging – all rolled into one column last week.

Sheila Carey asked, “Is needing to be independent learned or part of our genes?  I have to admit that I giggled out loud when I read your first paragraph.

            “When we moved from Prince George to Kelowna in 1990 my husband gave his snowblower to our next-door neighbour. On moving to Courtenay in 2013 he again gave away the snow blower. Last year, after shoveling his way through about six inches of the ‘wet cement’ that passes for snow here, he bought another, saying that ‘a snowblower is cheaper than a heart attack.’  (It’s already been used once this year.  Our neighbours love him because he does their driveways too.

Tom Watson: “I too value my independence. I learned a lesson the hard way, though, during my recently deceased wife's journey through terminal cancer. When we become ill enough there are two things that go -- our privacy and our dignity. And there comes the time when somebody else has to do everything for us...and I mean ‘everything.’ I marvelled at her ability to handle that loss of independence without a single complaint. Should I end up in a similar condition, will I have learned enough from her example to do likewise? Hope so. In the meantime, I am, figuratively speaking, buying all the damn snowblowers I think I need.”

Isabel Gibson: “I'd always assumed that the loss of independence due to aging was resented and fought because it was a loss of control… I hadn't made a connection between ‘independent’ and ‘lovable’ before.  I'm not sure I buy it, but it's an interesting perspective to consider.  Not believing we're lovable could well be the root of the evils that the love of money doesn't account for.”

Judy McGillivray offered “The other side of the coin. Last year my husband was sick and not able to clean the driveway. So I went out and used the snowblower. I broke three sheer pins; you have to keep it moving while you switch gears or switch into reverse or something like that.

            “Today we live in a condo. It all gets done for us. Life is wonderful with a swimming pool and exercise room, games room and tennis court, great walking paths… In our new independence, we have a great opportunity to care for one another in a complex of 90 condos. I don't need to shovel to get to a meeting at the church, and I don't have to push around that ####xxxx# snowblower…”

Bob Rollwagen admitted to loving his snowblower. Then he went on, “I have noticed a few crabby people who see needing help as a way to have power… Some have never had patience but now need it.  Do you think that aging forces understanding of and the need for community because you now need it? We now need more than our legs just to stand up, we need all the body parts and they have to work together and at the same time. Complicated.”

Ray Shaver, who could give me many pointers on moving gracefully into older age, suggested, “Perhaps you should write a sequel for our age group (and many, unfortunately, who are very much younger) about relinquishing independence patiently, gracefully.”

Steve Roney thought I had misrepresented the lessons of evolution: “The more traditional version is ‘Evolution is about the survival of the fittest.’ Each organism is ultimately in competition with all other organisms for the available resources, and it is every sabretooth cat for himself.

            “I also think that, while you can argue for the morality of both self-sufficiency and cooperation, you cannot, I think, argue for the morality of dependency. It may be necessary, but surely it would always be immoral to choose dependency voluntarily. It is necessarily an imposition on others.

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PSALM PARAPHRASES

This paraphrase of Psalm111 has been a favourite of mine. I like to think that if the original psalmist had had the opportunity to see the earth from space, he might have used similar words. (I saw the second line each verse as a response from the congregation.)

1          The bright blue planet spins in the vast darkness of space;
let all who live on earth rejoice.

2          Only on this one tiny orb do we know life exists;
let all who live on earth give thanks. 

3          The vision takes our breath away;
let all who live on earth open their eyes. 

4          This fragile ball bursting with life is a work of art;
let all who live on earth recognize God's goodness. 

5          Foxes and field mice, humans and whales, eagles and ants --
all are woven together in a tapestry of relationships;
let all who live on earth recognize this reality. 

6          And God has delegated responsibility to us;
let all who live on earth be mindful.

7          We must exercise care not to upset the delicate equilibrium of shared life;
let all who live on earth understand their responsibility. 

8          A tapestry cannot be reduced to a single thread;
let all who live on earth accept their responsibility. 

9          This egg floating in the dark womb of the universe is like God's own embryo;
let all who live on earth treat it as holy. 

10        We share an awesome and terrible responsibility;
may God live forever.

For paraphrases of most of the psalms used by the Revised Common Lectionary, you can order my book Everyday Psalms from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.

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TECHNICAL STUFF

If you want to comment on something, send a message directly to me, jimt@quixotic.ca.

            To subscribe or unsubscribe, send an e-mail message to jimt@quixotic.ca. Or you can subscribe electronically by sending a blank e-mail (no message or subject line) to softedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca. Similarly, you can un-subscribe at softedges-unsubscribe@lists.quixotic.ca.

            I write a second column each Sunday called Sharp Edges, which tends to be somewhat more cutting about social and justice issues. To sign up for Sharp Edges, write to me directly, jimt@quixotic.ca, or send a note to sharpedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca

            I’m leaving out some of the links to other blogs and pages, to see if those links have caused the recent blockages, preventing some of your from receiving the columns at all, and preventing others from sending responses. We’ll see.

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PROMOTION STUFF

To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols.

            Ralph Milton ’s latest project is called “Sing Hallelujah” -- the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at wwwDOTsinghallelujahDOTca

            Ralph’s HymnSight webpage is still up, http://wwwDOThymnsightDOTca, with a vast gallery of photos you can use to enhance the appearance of the visual images you project for liturgical use (prayers, responses, hymn verses, etc.)

            Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca>

            I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom

            Alva Wood’s satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town -- not particularly religious, but fun; alvawoodATgmailDOTcom to get onto her mailing list.

            Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom or twatsonATsentexDOTnet