Inside out...and exploded

I'm attempting to come up with a metaphor to counteract moral relativism. We've heard the ones, "You're calling black white!" to which the relativist exclaims, "But the perception of color is subjective. Why not call black white? I throw at you Neitzsche The Problem of Good and Evil. Meh." So the orthodox realist tries the Chestertonian/Anselmian tactic: "You're walking on the ceiling/wall and telling those of us walking on the floor that we're sideways." To which the relativist flicks his fingernails and politely asks, "Well, aren't concepts of up and down merely relative to one's position in space? I throw at you Einstein with a dose of Ender's Game. >yawn< Pass me the nail file."

The problem with analogies for the relativist is that, although the relativist proclaims that he thinks in analogies, that indeed one thing is pretty much analogous to another so why not choose one or the other according to what suits one's subjective fancy? - when confronted with a moral metaphor, he takes it literally and attacks and quibbles with the analogy rather than the meaning, the metaphor, the essence - and so we are derailed from theology to rhetoric. (Reminds me of the argument [rhetoric?] Sh.'s TAC friends were making about why Rhetoric is Evil. Don't wholly buy it, but can completely agree that like any tool seems to be more frequently yielded by those who have no right cause to do so. As another TACer said, "We owe it to the truth to make it as appealing as it truly is." No duff-sitters here, please!)

So, I propose the following metaphor, gleaned from that marvellous movie, Galaxy Quest. There's a section where they're all trying out a transporter beam and decide to test its capabilities on this pig-monster-thing (gotta love Sci-Fi)...but when it's turned Einsteinian into a bunch of molecules which are then zipped to the tranporter pad and reassembled...it arrives inside out...and explodes. It's a terrifically funny bit of comedy. (I confess, well-done stupid humour makes me laugh despite myself. There is a good movie inside the Austen Powers movies: strip away the vulgar stuff, leave the sophomoric, cherish the wicked satire, and you'll have yourself a solid 120 min. movie.)

That's my metaphor. There are absolutes in this world. There is an insideout and a rightsideout - just as we were trying to make the case of black/white, or up/down, or progress/regress, or forwards/backwards which the relativists childishly point out: you can't use that! It's an analogy! - but argue with this analogy then.

A man cannot live with his insides outside and his outsides inside. His skin was created for the purpose of holding everything, of acting as a barrier, a limit, a boundary. Likewise his bones are meant to be inflexible, unbroken, protected by layers of organs and tissue even while supporting those layers. And the organs, glands, tissue, joints, and everything inbetween each has its function in its proper place in the body. It is the only way we can function perfectly - if the outside is outside, and the inside in. And all in its proper order.

We don't rail against this. We don't petition Congress to pass an act that it is "better" or "more pleasing" or "just as pleasing" to remove all my skin, my boundaries, in order to "break free" from the "tyranny" of my skin. Indeed, were it pressed upon me to break that particular binding, what would happen? Any child could tell you - you'd bleed, you'd fall apart, you'd die. Yet, I am bound by it! I am not free. I cannot be rid of my skin. I am forced into an order I did not choose. Why can't my arms be where my legs are? I'm not liberated if I can't rearrange my face to be on my stomach and my intestines to be my hair. It's all the same, isn't it - I'd still be a person - why am I subject to these innate limitations?

And yet, no one ever thinks to question this. Not seriously. And a good thing, too! For we don't begrudge the outwardness of our skin. We do not deny its many functions. We are grateful for them. And any attempt to break the limitations of our skin, we erradicate - or rather erradiate: we do not desire cancer. Likewise we do not grumble at the basework of our skeleton. We do not whine and complain that we have an unyielding support that can only grow but never change. If anything, we take steps to ensure that our skeleton will not weaken, will not become hollow, or flexible, or broken. If our bones are broken, we go to lengths to repair them. We do not hope to have flexibility of cartilege rather than the solidity of bones - we don't *want* to be floppy, we want strength, support, the calming knowledge that our body cannot collapse.

Is this not the very essence of what God and His Church have given us? Boundaries (skin), solidity (bones) - so that our organs, our body, all the little bits inbetween, may each in its appropriate place do its appropriate function. What do nerves do? They send to the brain tactile information. And not merely pleasurable, erotic information (which is all some people think nerves are good for), but ALL tactile information. Something is hot, cold, rough, smooth - I'm sounding like a first grade school teacher, but perhaps this whole world, our whole society needs to go back to first grade. What are the glands for? What is the colon for? The pancreas? The stomach? Tendons? Ligaments? Joints? Why do we have toes? Why are they smaller than fingers? Why does we need them at all? Why do we have feet, ankles? What is the function of each thing? How does DNA work - RNA? What is the proper function of the stomach? To digest drugs and excesses of alcohol? No. What is the purpose of the reproductive organs but to reproduce (granted, with pleasure - see nerves)? What is the purpose of the whole excrement system but to keep us healthy and regular? And to use these organs in ways contrary to their use is to fly in the face of science, in the face of common sense, and certainly in the face of the Divine Plan. It's to make the insides outside, and the outsides inside and break the body.

I'm advocating common sense. I want all my good and right body parts in their good and right places. I do not want my good and right body parts in their stupid and useless and perhaps fatal places. I'm not being bigoted here. I'm not being a thisaphobe or a thataphobe. I'm not being a fantatic, I don't think, if I rather vehemently demand my right for my body - and the metaphorical body and my fellow man's body (physical and metaphysical) - to be rightsideout AND rightsidein. Am I to stand by while an army of virtual Dr. Mengeles* convinces us once again that we are nothing but base animals, and therefore have every right to experiment, by destruction if need be, with the natural order?

* Mengeles was the brutal Nazi who experimented on twins, children with handicaps, etc. and truly believed that he was doing good because their lives were worthless anyway, that they were subhuman. Gah. If I weren't a Christian woman, Elmira Gultch...!

Who desires a broken body? Who desires pain? Who desires insideoutness, really? Either physically, literally, or spiritually, morally. For just as we can say a man's body is fundamentally different from, say a whale, or any other creature (say what you want about monkeys - any five year old with eyes will recognize rather obvious differences), so man is also differentiated from other animals by what the ancients called the reason (as opposed to mere intellect), and which others have since called the soul (actually, credit where credit's due - Aristotle et al were working towards that - De Anima etc.). The problem is that most people simply won't - or perhaps are incapable, either because of disposition or more likely because of schooling (AUGH!) - recognize each of these parts as separate but whole. It's a Trinitarian mentality that's required, I suppose. Yes, undoubtedly your "higher animals" have intellect - that is not in question. And part of the intellect is going to encompass some form of base communication (barking, etc.), some form of problem solving (watch a squirrel discover new ways of getting at the bird feeder), perhaps even some base form of emotion - or better explained, passion.

However, as Twain - that ethical, wonderful, moral man - said, "Man is the only animal who blushes. Or needs to." A dog, if chastised, feels fear perhaps - survival instinct and all that - but not shame, not guilt. Same thing, it can feel the passions, but deep abiding daily romantic thick-and-thin better-or-worse binding love? No. Some are "programmed" to "mate for life" - but there is no sacrament or need for sacrament there. There is no need for ritual - not even a handshake. There is no sitting down and philosophizing! There is no art. There is not reason or partaking in the greater creativity.

And that is fine.

If you want to be a good scientist, you will comfortably examine creation from the lap of the Creator. There is no conflict, only conclusion. There is no confusion, only greater understanding. All matter is good. And animals, plants, etc. are good and remain unfallen because they are what they were created to be. They aren't trying to mix up their outsides and insides. Tis a gift to be simple! Tis a gift to be free! Tis a gift to come round to where you ought to be. Nor are we men evil. We are created good, and all our matter is good. But we can use our good matter for wrong - let us use the taboo word! - for evil ends. We can use our good reason - let us use the frightening, responsible word free will - for evil ends. That does not make our bodies evil. It does not make our souls or minds evil - in and of themselves. But our actions can be evil. Indeed, they can.

Yet, and here's the glorious drama, that same free will which modern man fears so much that he is afraid to truly grasp it for any noble purpose, that same free will can be used and should be used and is frequently used for goodness. And God is Good, and so I mean for God. And God is everything, and therefore I mean to achieve everything. What greater ambition is there than this? Why do we cower so from the thought of responsibility, and then rush after fickle fame? Why do we desire the good opinion of those who do not know us and then scream in rage when He who made us calls us back to Him - or invites us in to dine? Shall I put my trust in my fellow man? To an extent, of course - as I put my trust in this blogspot that it will post my ramblings or in the computer that it will keep information or in my very fingertips that they know which key to hit to punch out the right letter. But that trust is not rooted in these things: which will undoubtedly fail at one time or another. My trust, my faith, my belief is not hidden in the hearts of my fellow man, or even in myself - for all have betrayed me and I have betrayed myself - but in the Unchanging, in the Unmoved Mover, in God Himself.

He is my skeleton and my skin. He is my support and my shelter. And, like the dollar still thankfully says, in Him do I trust. From Him do I have my life and being, because of Him I am able to move. And yet, here's the wonderful irony, the divine paradox, the Heavenly joyful laughter - because He is my everything, or rather, I am His, I am utterly and completely free. By His binding am I liberated. Were He not my skeleton, I would not be able to run, walk, dance through this world, without fear, without shame, with utter and complete carelessness. Were He not my skin, I would not be able to type, to kiss, to love and laugh and feel. He makes me alive, and am I to run from that?

Yet run I do. Complain I do. Ungrateful (and Yoda!) I am! I am free to be stupid. I am free to be as spiritually autistic as I like - doesn't matter, my faith is not in myself. Oh, sometimes - all to frequently - I convince myself that I am an artistic deity. And then I...am insideout...and explode. It's not pretty. I think I'll stay as I'm meant to be. I hope you do, too.

Mood: My back hurts, does that count?
Music: Pendular PMS - found my tape! Whoopee!
What stinks: I had even more interesting and better said stuff in my head whilst taking a shower. Alas, I left it with the steam.
What's great: I'm not in charge. Bellwether forever!