“I want so badly to believe that there is truth and love is real.
And I want life in every word, to the extent that it’s absurd.”
The above is a quote from the song “Clark Gable”, by the electronic indie pop band The Postal Service. The song has for quite some time interested me. Aside from its catchy sounds and clever lyrics, these few verses stand out for me as an authentic cultural cry for help. What I mean is this: these few words encapsulate the very essence of a contemporary problem. That is, the horrible split that exists in our reality between a desire for authentic love and the “realization” that all is either a social-construct or simply relative to other so-called rarefied “truth claims”. The problem could be defined as a Post-Modern one, but the deep and sincere cry that is heard in these words confronts a reality that we are all too aware of: we, as a culture, want to claim that all “truths” are questionable, that everything depends on perception, on your culture, your “point of view”, while personally we recognize a deep-seated desire for something solid to base our reality on. We have a tendency to establish that on science, an ideology, the mainstream media, conspiracy theories, false religion, etc. Whatever the method, it’s a kind of idolatry that temporarily alleviates the existential achiness that plagues our postmodern consciences.
How many times I have heard from sincere and intelligent people: “it is true for them” or “that’s your truth” or “that’s how I feel, you may feel differently”. Let’s consider science in all of this… that is, Science with a capital “S”. When it comes to medicine, for example, is there anyone who will say to his dentist, “Personally, I believe that brushing your teeth is a social construct of the 19th century that is restrictive on my freedoms… if I love my teeth for what they are and accept them, they will be clean for me. My teeth are clean for me, in fact, and so I don’t need to have them cleaned by a dentist so that I can live up to an antiquarian, rigid, puritanical idea of hygiene. When you tell me my teeth will fall out, you don’t know that, you are just threatening me so that you can get my money.” ? Anyone?
In other words, is there any one of us who would deny that, absolutely speaking, teeth need to be cared for in order to be kept, and that, absolutely speaking, having one’s teeth is a benefit to the person? This is a “truth claim”… and it is generally accepted (I hope widely!) within the realm of Science that it is the truth: there are certain ways to care for teeth that are helpful, and others that are not, and that not caring for one’s teeth at all is a bad idea, perhaps even, biologically speaking “wrong.” So when I go to the dentist, I am rightfully afraid, especially if I have not cared for my teeth as I should have. I expect him to say something! I expect him to have to remedy what I have bungled in order for me to have healthy teeth… I expect this to hurt to some degree!
Yet in the spiritual realm, we are led astray. We have reduced sin to a sociological or psychological phenomenon… the Care of Souls can no longer be considered in any way “scientific”, nor can religion, for it is entirely personal! It depends solely on the personal wishes of each human being––what he or she believes to be “true for me”. Yet how can this be so!? If we accept on a basic level that each human person is composed of some kind of body and soul, if we admit of the spiritual in any way shape or form, we must accept that if all men are created equal… then their souls are likewise created equally. There must be, in a real, scientific, true sense, a right way to care for the soul, and a wrong way to care for the soul. There are many ways to clean one’s teeth, just as there may be more than one way to confess one’s sins––and as a result some are going to be better than others––but both brushing your teeth and confessing wrongdoing are necessary for the health of a person… and absolutely so!*
There’s something more to be said about the quote from the Postal Service. In all our attempts to relativize and rationalize, we might fail to recognize that if there is no absolute truth, there is no such thing as love, let alone “true love”. Two people could never “feel the same way about each other” because they would forever be relativized in relation to one another. My feelings are mine, yours are yours. But love is more than a feeling (thank you, Boston), love involves a choice, it involves the intellect… in order to love a person “for who she really is” we have to know the person for who she truly is, not just who we think or want, or imagine her to be. That is, we have to know the truth about her. But the truth about that person is not “my truth” about that person… instead, it’s the simple, absolute truth about who she really is. We cannot love, in fact, without Truth. We cannot love absolutely, with all we are, unless we know truly, the One who is Love, the One who absolutely loves, the One who is Truth and truly loves.
There is Truth. Love is real. There is life in every word.
So saddle up, and approach the Dentist of souls, Jesus Christ, with confidence and love, knowing that there is true love.
* edited for clarity June 3, 2010
