Paradox is referred to several times in these Pages because the principle is so large in the acts of mankind and God. The paradoxes of God have immortality in them. Ancients may have managed paradox better than we do currently. If we do not like a paradox, we call it contradiction and write it off to whatever advantage or disadvantage we choose. The tension in nature between Mother Earth with all her beauty and nurture, is paradoxically juxtaposed on an earth that erupts, burns, blows, floods, freezes, and generally becomes frightening, especially when in fury. Much of our explanation of life is fraught with paradox/contradiction. In consternation many persons moderate their spiritual tendencies and give up trying to work through life’s oddities, distortions and opposites. A paradox is true, but seems like a contradiction – unless understood.
One of the ways in which persons try to satisfy their own context for life is to review history, and try to accommodate current benefits, paradoxes or contradictions that characterize the present. On the turn to the twentieth century there were studies made of life in America. It was found that life expectancy was less than fifty years on average; that there were about 85% of homes without bathtubs; that about 8% of homes had telephones; that there were fewer than 200 miles of paved roads outside cities; that the number of automobiles was fewer than 10,000; that the speed limit inside cities was ten miles per hour; that the average hourly wage was less than 25 cents; that the average laborer made about a dollar a day, and the average for professionals, like engineers, was about $50 to $100 a week; that 95 births out of 100 took place in the home of the mother; that the cost of food was, on average, 4 cents for a pound of sugar, 14 cents for a dozen eggs, 15 cents a pound for imported coffee; that most baths were taken weekly, and women washed their hair once monthly; that the common causes of death were pneumonia, flu, tuberculosis, diarrhea, heart failure and stroke; that the population of Las Vegas, Nevada was 30 persons; that fewer than ten percent of teenagers graduated from high school; that one in every five citizens could neither read nor write; that nearly one in five homes had a live-in person who was a servant to the family; and, that there were about 250 murders reported during the year for the whole nation. In a study commissioned by Walt Disney after World War II it was found that a relatively poor decade, 1900-1910, in America was the nation’s happiest. Walt Disney fashioned Main Street in his theme park on that assumption. Even with massive warfare and depression during the first fifty years of the twentieth century, as Disney’s point, the greatest physical advancement in all history was accomplished in America. Human life was greatly advanced in natural improvements.
Another study of national happiness a century later than the one above found the United States at seventh among developed/rich countries, with Denmark ranked first. This ought to alert us to something about ourselves. It appears that the general population now equates happiness with material wealth. But there is never enough wealth. Even that is threatened by greed and linked to increasing consumption by the public. We are told we must buy more for prosperity. Each new gadget is bought up with frenzy, but is commonly used in the belief that it is already obsolete, and will be replaced before its usefulness has ended. So we have made life a mechanical existence, a collection of goods, with moderated values and relationships. Is this progress? Happiness eludes many of us. Paradox or contradiction may dominate in our experiences. We need to find a better paradigm for the good life. It might be found in quality, in equity, in some ideal greater than materialism. We should pray for and seek guidance to it. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020