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The
Hay Harvest
Artist Pieter
Brueghel the Elder
Year 1565
Type Oil
on wood
|
Today
Kathy and I had lunch with a young friend celebrating his 22nd
birthday. While a youth he received disability for mental impairment
(slowness). Yet I have never found this to affect our relationship in
any way whatsoever. The longer I live the more mystified I am by the
concept of intelligence. Last night on CNN I saw an interview with
an eminent CEO; I thought he had some very foolish things to say.
Today at lunch I ask my young friend—“if life were a test, what
would it be a test of?” He thought a moment and said soberly that
it was a hard question. Then he responded that “life is a test of
faith.” I was abashed. This was in no way the response I expected
from a “slow” young man of 22. It seems to me that on the whole
we pay way too much attention to official repositories of
status—positions of power or prestigious credentials—and not near
enough to the voice of more humble folk with a rare asset—having
what Christ referred in the first Beatitude as being “poor in
spirit.” After all, where are we more likely to come closer to
finding the truth—among the humble or among the arrogant?
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