to see what is there

"You can't go wrong if your opening quote is by C.S. Lewis.  People will at least read that far.  Everybody has a Lewis-soft spot."--Anonymous

Well, then.

"Chronological snobbery", as coined by Lewis, is  "the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate common to our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that account discredited. You must find why it went out of date. Was it ever refuted (and if so by whom, where, and how conclusively) or did it merely die away as fashions do? If the latter, this tells us nothing about its truth or falsehood. From seeing this, one passes to the realization that our own age is also "a period," and certainly has, like all periods, its own characteristic illusions. They are likeliest to lurk in those widespread assumptions which are so ingrained in the age that no one dares to attack or feels it necessary to defend them."  (Lewis, Surprised by Joy)

Classes have begun in earnest here at the University of Maine, and in the wake of their first attack this quote comes to mind.  Chronological snobbery is the climate here in many areas: in the professors, in the students, in the notes on the textbooks, in the iPhones.  Oh, the iPhones; they are so cool. It is not the only climate, but it does seem to be the predominant one.   

But then I see that I have taken up a snobbery of my own, which, I am sure, Lewis would never have intended his quote to produce: a reverse-direction chronological snobbery.  We are pendulumic people, and one of the rarest things to come by--rare because it is so difficult to mine, and requires years of grace--is a clear perception: a true view of self, of others, of past, of present, of God; in a word, of reality.

Perception and reality are tricky, tangled, high-flung words.  Simply put, perception is what one senses is, and reality is what actually is.  Perception is what is seen; reality is what exists, seen or not. They are not the same, though our culture often claims they are—and the difference is crucial.  The lumping of perception and reality has crept into nearly every crevice of life—into art, where “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, into English, where eisegesis replaces exegesis, into conversation, where “like, you know what I mean, for me, but maybe not for you” replaces “actually, you’re wrong here, and let me show you why”.  It has not crept so much into science and math, because, well, two plus two is four, no matter how well one argues otherwise.  If we begin tampering with truth in math and science, things begin to turn disastrous with slightly more conspicuity than in the humanities (only slightly).

This is because reality matters.  If I perceive that gravity does not exist and leap from the top of the Empire State Building, I will find reality exists (apart from perception), that it matters, and that the key to wisdom is to have my perception as closely tuned to reality as possible. 

The problem is, we are all humans; and humans, as history has shown time and again, often perceive things to be real that are not real at all.  So how can we truly know reality?  We are all humans; we are all subject to perceive things through our own five or six senses; history shows that we have been wrong before, so how can one person claim he has found the truth?  Every truth claim made by a human being is based on his perception.  Human perception cannot be trusted.  How can we know reality at all? (How can you trust what I am saying here at all?  Am I not a human like you, and is this not merely my perception?) 

At this point, some resign themselves to thinking that reality, though it exists, cannot be known. No one, then, can claim that cannibalism is mean, and that food charities are nice.  It’s all a matter of one’s perception. 

In order for reality to be known, it must be revealed.  Eyes must be opened and ears unstopped. Reality must reveal itself to us.  The ultimate word on what reality is must be reality’s own word, not the word of the one who perceives.  The only way reality can be known is by the revelation of itself.  Anything that claims to be a true revelation of reality that is the work of a human alone must be immediately recognized as simply another human perception.  But anything that claims to reality’s revelation of itself—say, the very words of God, who is the Ultimate Reality, and who creates and sustains all reality—must be taken very seriously.  For if it is what it claims to be, our perception must become attuned to it, or we will never have any true wisdom at all.  Is this all simply my perception?  Maybe.  But try reading the Book.

This, then, must be the thing:  to learn the past, to learn the present, to learn humility, and to live in truth and love.  And this comes through a right view of reality.