Cinqo de Søren

Cinqo de Mayo and Taco Tuesday- a happy pairing providing a little reverie when reverie is in short supply.  But I can’t shake the feeling that our meming up of this day is like the Star and Stripes shorts and tank-tops I see on the 4th of July- fun but not quite the point.

I’m going to pivot and lift up something else about the 5th of May- the birthday of Danish author and Christian intellectual Søren Kierkegaard.  He was born this day in 1813 and wrote in, no doubt helped contribute to, the Danish golden age.  He is regarded as the father of Existentialism (a disputed claim I think- shouldn’t that really go to Qoheleth, the voice we hear in Ecclesiastes?  But I digress).  Kierkegaard’s writing years were very brief, but his legacy has proven long.  Here are a few quotes:

• To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself. 
• Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
• The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.
• People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

Here he is doing his best ‘Karen’ as a philosopher:

• How did I get into the world? Why was I not asked about it and why was I not informed of the rules and regulations?  How did I get involved in this big enterprise called actuality? Why should I be involved? Isn't it a matter of choice? And if I am compelled to be involved, where is the manager—I have something to say about this. Is there no manager? To whom shall I make my complaint?

And lastly for now:

• Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.

We have many, many problems to be sure.  But the amount of our problems do not ever equal the depth and breadth of our life.  Having a problem does not negate that you also, abundantly more in fact, have life.  To have life is to have potential and opportunity to manage and overcome any problem, any challenge.  Life lasts longer than any problem can.  To think otherwise is to start imagining that we have problems larger than life and outside of God’s providence and that is just not possible or true. 

The father of Existentialism can be a tough read sometimes- a total downer in fact, especially when his poor friend Nihilism starts to show up.  But Kierkegaard can’t help but be at times funny and usually hopeful because his quarrel is not with God but with  our unwillingness to trust God.  For trust in God leads to a richness in life where problems do not end our life but expand our life.  With God, all things are made new. Grab a taco or two and think it over.  Let's check in again next week.