Looking for Answers

Oscar Wilde said "I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability."  That might be a little cynical. I'm not sure God is to blame for man. Certainly there is enough blame to go around, and God gets a lot of credit. I have seen some of the greatest athletes of my time thank the good Lord for their achievements. 

This is more than a little troubling. It almost implies God liked one team more than the other. I'm no theologian but that doesn't sound like the God. At least not the God they drilled into me in Catholic school. But, God works in mysterious ways.

Recently someone on a Facebook writers group I belong to (yes I am still calling myself a writer) had an idea for a television project. It would take a book and make a season long series. Most books are hard to compress into a two hour movie, but a 22 episode series provides a little more substance. She asked which book people would choose. The first one that came to my head was "God Knows," by Joseph Heller. I loved that book, but was surprised that it was the first one to come to mind. I'm not a religious man.

The other day, I was looking for a quote for an article I was writing about love. And I remembered a concert with Bob Dylan and Tom Petty. In the opening Dylan talked about heroes.

"This song's about my hero. Everybody's got heroes, I don't know who your hero is, maybe Mel Gibson, all right, let's hear it for Mel Gibson. I think for some of you it might be Micheal Jackson. maybe Bruce Springsteen. Anyway, I don't care nothing about none of those people..." Followed by a scorching hot version of "In the Garden." The best I have ever heard.

Which reminded me of the Steppenwolf song, "From Here to There Eventually."

"I remember when, I still embraced you,
A little prayer could ease my mind
Til' I saw that you hide from the misery outside."

A song about the disillusionment suffered by so many as the world falls apart and the answers seem so trite and pointless. There is no comfort in teachings that don't address the suffering. And I remembered the liner notes from Aqualung by Jethro Tull.

"In the beginning Man created God.
And in the image of Man created he him..

...But as these things did come to pass, 
the Spirit that did cause Man to create his God
lived on within all men: even within Aqualung.

And Man saw it not.

But for Christ’s sake he’d better start looking."

Life, religion, art, all seem so intertwined, so dependent on each other. In a way we have always been looking for answers. We always will. Finding something to offer a little comfort is a blessing. That is all most of us really want, just something to make sense of the madness. I don't think that is asking too much.