In the beginnings of human experience, art and literature had a special importance for us who strive to understand who we are and where we came from.
In prehistoric days, (that is to say) days before we began writing our history, some of our primitive ancestors drew pictures on cave walls, which were later discovered by curious explorers.
As humble as those first etchings were, they were the beginning our Art history. Ultimately those primitive figures paved the way for the likes of Michelangelo, El Greco, Rembrandt, Matisse, Van Gogh, Whistler and Wyeth, to name only a representative few. . . even, I suppose . . . Warhol, though his renderings seem to represent a return to the primitive side of our expressive powers.
Design is important. Remember that.
Well, that’s my nutshell explanation about art in human history. There is another long indicator of what we humans have been up to since our beginning. That is writing.
For my purposes here, I replace the nickel word, “writing”, with a dime word: literature.
We’ve had a lot of it turn up, and this stuff goes way back in time. From Bhagavad Gita to Bible to bibliography and beyond, information that is written—literature—has been an expressive and constructive driver of human progress and wisdom since the dawn of human history.
In the particular culture in which I was raised—the American version—I had an early exposure to the Bible. It is an ancient book that, across multiple millennia of time, has been used as a credible and significant source of history, faith and inspiration.
Way back in Time, Moses began writing it.
As the years and centuries rolled along, his literary torch was passed along . . . through the trials and tribulations of immigrating patriarchs and matriarchs, through the liberating of slaves, through the manipulations of multiple monarchs, the exploits of expanding empires, persecuted prophets, crucified Christ and beyond.
The impact of a risen Messiah has been a major factor in Western history. Jesus’ disciples, Peter and Paul and many others spread the good news of his victory over death.
By ’n by, that gospel message got ramped up into a major religion.
From bare bones first century faith to catholic control to renaissance renewal to reformation revival to whatever it is we have now, this Jesus phenom has had a major impact on life in this world.
About seventeen or eighteen centuries after the Christian faith expansion had begun, along came a major rearrangement of our skull-based neurons and we began to view things through a different lens.
The microscope and the telescope gave us a miniscule and a new macro view of this amazing world and universe in which we live and breathe and have our being.
Long story short, we became so smart that most of us tossed all that ole time religion out with the bath water.
Since we’ve discovered natural selection guiding evolutionary human progress, the polls indicate that most folks have indeed thrown the baby out with the bath water.
But hey, what goes around comes around. All that scientific inquiry has brought us to the discovery of DNA, which turns out to be a divinely encrypted code of ancient software—with functionalized specificity beyond mere mathematics— by which our human development, progress and destiny is, to some extent, determined.
But not entirely determined. The rest is up to you.
(Thanks to Stephen Meyer↑)
What you do with your coded life plan and with your life choices is up to you. Ain’t nobody gonna do it for you. So get on it. Do what you gotta do so you won’t have to look back with regret.
Whatever you do, pause to consider the possibility of living on the other side of death, instead of, you know, becoming a pile of dust. This whole deal started with a big bang but, for you, it doesn't have to end that way.
And if it turns out that there’s someone there to take your hand and lead you to the other side of that dark door . . . well maybe you oughter ponder that.
Thanks for stoppin by.
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