COMMENSAL ISSUE 92

Dear Theo,

Thank you very much for compiling another excellent edition of our Newsletter, C91.

Now to your request for expansion on the miracle of human life.

Tempted to go for the quiet life and simply say a miracle can be 'a wonder' or 'a marvel', both of which apply to life in all its glory, thereby avoiding further debate, probably more about semantics than faith or belief. However, I have not yielded. The Chambers Dictionary defines miracle as, 'an event which breaks a law of nature', and further defines Nature as 'the power that creates and regulates the world; all the natural phenomena created by this power, including plants, animals, landscape, etc. as distinct from people.' An unexpected distinction from such a down to earth source.

What is so unique and distinct about human life that the power which creates and regulates it is excluded from the laws of Nature, or rather our limited understanding of them ?

For a slightly different perspective, these words were written by Morris Rosenfeld. Born in 1862, he grew up in Warsaw, learned tailoring in London and moved to the US, where he barely earned a living in the sweatshops and nearly went blind. He died in 1923, poor alone and embittered.

MEIN YINGELE - MY LITTLE SON

I have a little boy,
a fine little son,
when I see him, it seems to me
I own the whole world.
But I seldom see him,
my little son, when he is awake.
I always meet him when he sleeps.
I only see him at night.
My work drives me out early
and makes me come home late.

(abridged)

Not only do these words touch on the feeling of being aware of the significance wrapped up in a new human life, but also there is much poignancy in the idea that although economic circumstances have changed dramatically throughout the twentieth century, this poem could have been written by many parents living today.

Rabbi Lionel Blue once told a story about a young man in training to be a rabbi. He listened one day while two men discussed a disagreement with the good rabbi. The first man spoke, the wise man listened, and declared, "you are right, go back to your home". The second man spoke, the wise man listened, and again declared, "you are right, go back to your home". Puzzled by the old man's comments the young man declared, "Rabbi, you listened to the first man and you told him he was right. Then you listened to the second man and you told him he too was right. Surely, they cannot both be right." The old man got up to leave, and turned to the young man and said quietly," And you are right also!"

There just isn't room for many absolutes these days, is there?

Many blessings to everyone.

Norman Mackie

Norman : The poem is very moving; and you are right - it does have many modern applications (myself included, though my children are no longer so young).

We, ie. the SIG, should discuss what we mean by terms such as "Nature" some time. It strikes me that Chambers is defining how people use (or used) words, not claiming that there is any such referent. Describing Nature as 'the power that creates and regulates the world’ doesn’t seem to be a contemporary understanding. Do people - or do we - really believe there is such a ‘power’ ? If so we are pantheists. Isn’t this simply a problem of language - where impersonal forces or processes are personified in the old Graeco-Roman way ? We use the term "creatures" while many of us no longer believe in a creator. By the way, has anyone read Lucretius’ poem on the nature of things, De rerum natura ?

Incidentally - my copy of Chambers (1964) doesn’t have the same definition. While it starts off the same - the power that creates and regulates the world: - it continues - the power of growth: the established order of things: the cosmos: the external world, esp. as untouched by man: ... etc. This puts a slightly different gloss on the distinction between man and nature that you were pleased to find there. Mankind does draw a distinction between itself and everything else - "nature", but this doesn’t mean that we aren’t part of that something else. All species interact with their environment, it’s just that Homo Sapiens is rather better at doing so, for good or ill, on a grand scale.

Getting back to "the miracle of life" - I’m not sure that definitions in some editions of a dictionary are sufficient grounds for maintaining that there is something separate or miraculous about human life over against other life, or of life over inanimate matter.

Theo