Sunday 15 April 2001

Pic of the day: Things change. The incredible becomes commonplace. (This picture is from the farm where I grew up, and shows the new buildings that are almost finished.)

The power and the glory

I was walking along the road, thinking about teleportation. I sometimes dream that I can do that. Move from one place to another in an instant, without going the usual route, without spending the time. Since I don't particularly like to travel, I guess that appeals to me. I go somewhere when I need to be there. But, it also feels good. For some obscure reason, I like to teleport. I miss it a bit when I wake up.

And I thought by myself that perhaps this was a kind of hubris, of sinful pride, a kind of blasphemy, to want to be more than just a human. But the voice in my mind said, "you really think that is all it takes"? And it showed me.

***

A hundred years ago, my great-grand-parents lived in the year 1901. A few years ago, people had invented the bicycle, the automobile, and the aeroplane (still in testing). Yes, for some reason these things were invented within a few years of each other. It was a time of great progress. But this progress had not come as far as to where my ancestors lived. Perhaps my mother's grandfather Dave had heard of the automobile - from what legends say, he was a genius and very much interested in technological things. But he certainly had not seen any of this, or electric light, or radio and telephone.

A hundred years ago, my ancestors could barely dream of the power we command today by merely pressing a few buttons. I can walk around holding a small object that lets me talk to people anywhere in the world. I can send mail to a whole group of friends at the same time, and have it arrive within minutes or even less - and almost for free, too. I can see things that happen elsewhere in the world, if I am so inclined, almost as soon as they happen. I routinely discuss with people from several different continents.

Not to mention the everyday wonders of the electrified age: Pressing a switch and have bright light fill the room, even in the middle of the night. A stove without wood, a water jug that boils water by itself standing on the table. A cupboard that keeps cold in the middle of summer, and floors that are comfortably warm in the middle of winter. Hot and cold running water come out of the wall at my whim. If I wish to hear a symphony, I can have it performed in my living room within the minute. How is that for power?

Were my ancestors from 1901 to suddenly stand in my apartment, they would be amazed, they would be awestruck. And many of the things I could tell them from our world would seem too far fetched to believe. Men walking on the moon? Weapons that could burn a whole city to ashes in the blink of an eye? Surely this should be beyond human capacity. Were we at all human anymore? How can we wield such power and still be true humans?

***

And yet, in the core of our being, so little has changed. Our love and our hate, our empathy and our selfishness ... they remain unchanged, or at least there is no obvious difference to see. Well, our culture has changed somewhat. A young person today is more self-assured, more aware of his or her rights. They don't take shit from someone who just happen to be older, or richer, or born with a more popular skin color.

But go just a little deeper, and modern man can recognize himself in the writings of those who lived thousand, two thousand, three thousand years ago. Many customs have changed, and beliefs. But the core of our lives and our loves remain stubbornly the same. We remain human. And if our grandchildren - well, your grandchildren, I'm not going to have any - if they for some reason can fly without wings or heat their dinner by looking hard at it, if they can walk through walls or jump from one house to another in the blink of an eye ... they will still be as human as you and I at heart. We may not know that, but they will.

***

Today, on Easter Day, christianity celebrates the greatest display of power in recorded history. So great indeed that it seems absurd to believe it, despite the many witnesses who would rather die than stop telling what they had seen with their own eyes. According to christian lore, on such a spring day a bit less than two thousand years ago, a man was raised from death and made immortal, godlike even.

If the legends are to be trusted - and you probably have your own opinions of that - this man did things that seem impossible even to us today. Walking on water, duplicating food hundreds of times over, healing the sick instantly, even raising the recently dead back to human life. Things that look like science fiction at best. And yet the same writings portray this man as someone very human. Someone who could cry, be angry, grow hungry and thirsty, long deeply for his friends, and suffer fear bordering on panic on the prospect of his own death. To tell the truth, I know few people as human as Jesus the Nazarene.

And so maybe the true blasphemy would be to think that power would make us better. If I understand the tales about Jesus right, he was tempted in the same ways as we, and it was not his power to do miracles that helped him resist evil and choose good. It was his humility and his love.

Whether we believe those stories or not, I think that lesson is well worth learning.