Epiphany XI: Amazement

Good Friday morning, good pilgrims of The Epiphany Season. It's another chilly January morning here on the Delmarva Peninsula. The water in front of our house is frozen solid. The Merganser ducks and other waterfowl are not pleased.

The only thing left to do is to simply wait it out until the season changes and the temperature warms as the days grow longer and the sun shines again. And, bundle up in a warm coat, a hat, and some gloves when you go outside. And, warm boots.

I woke up this morning, remembering something my grandmother said, "If you live long enough you will learn a few things. It doesn't mean you're smart or wise. It just means that you'll have acquired a lot of information. It's what you do with that information that makes you smart or wise."

Last night, I completed an entire category in Jeopardy, and then I completed the Double Jeopardy answer. And, it wasn't even Teen Week. Actually, it was The Second Chance Championship.

I even got a few answers that the panel didn't. I think I love it best when that happens. Especially when that happens several times in 30 minutes. That is second only to when I get the Final Jeopardy question and none of the rest of the panel does.

I remembered something I heard the brilliant actor, Emma Stone, say during an interview. She said that what she really, really, really wanted in life was to qualify to appear on Jeopardy. That was her goal. What happened after that was immaterial. She just wanted to qualify to appear on Jeopardy.

She said she had taken the online exam and it had been almost a year but she hadn't heard anything and was really starting to get concerned that she wouldn't make the cut. The interviewer suggested that perhaps she would be invited to Celebrity Jeopardy. Ms. Stone did not want that. "I want to be on Jeopardy with all the other smart people," she said.

And then she revealed that, because of her chosen profession, she had never graduated from high school or college. And, she said, this would be a marker of having attained and acquired enough information in her life that she had "accomplished something."

Mind you, Emma Stone is nothing if not an accomplished actor. She has won not one but two Academy Awards. She has also won two BAFAs (British Academy Film Awards), and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2017, she was the world's highest-paid actress and was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

But, she doesn't have a high school diploma or college degree and all she wants is to qualify and be invited to play Jeopardy.

Isn't that amazing? Aren't we humans odd creatures? Indeed, we may well be the oddest of all of God's creatures.

When the water freezes, Mergansers and other ducks and waterfowl move to open water or migrate to warmer climates. That's not a decision they've made based on information they got at The Elementary School for Ducks and Other Waterfowl.

I know humans who have acquired lots of information in their lives, but they aren't as smart as some ducks. Indeed, as I've observed some of my wildlife neighbors over the years - especially the red foxes, deer, rabbits, and turtles - some of these creatures appear not only smart but quite wise, especially as they tend to and feed their young.

Don't get me wrong, I'm as pleased as I can be with my accomplishment last night. It doesn't prove a thing, however, about my value or worth as a person. It's not a real measure of my intelligence or abilities. It certainly has little or no connection to any wisdom I may have.

No, I think one of the greatest measures of our growth and development, and maturation as a member of the human species is our ability to be compassionate and kind. Because those qualities come from a heart that is filled with gratitude. And, a heart that is filled with gratitude beats in the chest of a human being who understands that all of this life, this very brief time on this very fragile planet, is a gift.

The true measure of the advancement and achievement of our skills and knowledge and wisdom can not really be calculated because it lies in our ability to be amazed.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once said that we should get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. It is to understand that "everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible".

I believe that a heart that is filled with gratitude could never treat life casually. Rabbi Heschel said, "To be spiritual is to be amazed."

I think this is what Rabbi Jesus meant when he said that people should become like children to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Somewhere I have a video of one of our grandchildren laughing uproariously as her mother reads "Goodnight Moon." I remember showing that clip to one of my mentors who said, "That's the way it should be when we hear the Gospel in church. It should be such incredibly good news that we giggle like children with pure joy and delight and amazement."

While I think it may piss God off if we don't use the intelligence and skills and talents with which we were blessed to do good in this life, being amazed by the wonders of God as a child is amazed and delighted by simple pleasures is the real measure of our achievement as humans who are spiritual beings.

As Ann Lamott writes, WOW is one of three essential prayers. The other two are HELP and THANKS.

I hope something good happens to you today.

Bom dia.

PS: Please continue to pray for the people in California as they struggle to recover from the devastation of this catastrophic fire.