by Ray Newman, radio and television commentator, attorney, educator, author

Monday, October 7, 2013

THE ETERNAL PLAN

Saw a local theater production of "Fiddler on the Roof" the other day...and heard that question asked of God by Tevye in "If I Were a Rich Man":

     Would it spoil some vast eternal plan,
      If I were a wealthy man?

The implication, of course, is that it would not.  So why then, I wondered again, are we so fixated on the idea that in order for our individual lives to be meaningful, to  be of some great value, we must be a part of something larger, bigger, more important than ourselves...an eternal plan, a family, a society?

Why do we say foolish things like, "He did wrong.  He embarrassed the family"?  "You are a part of society, you have to give up certain things,"  "You are only one person, who do you think you are?"

Are those views not at the heart of  the socialist movement in our country, the terrorist movement around the world, all social, racial, ethnic, divides, all wars? 

And was the right view on these things not at the heart of America's founding, America's greatness?

Until we realize there is no eternal plan, that there is nothing greater than each individual life, and start acting accordingly, man will not survive into eternity.

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