Phlebotomic is a blog experiment that seeks to gather multiple perspectives around a common prompt, which is provided weekly.

Last week's prompt was "Beauty"...

This week's prompt is "Path"...

01 March 2009

King: Can't Out-Solomon Solomon


Sometimes, when I'm in my car I hit a bit of NPR deadzone - that period of programming where the Lords of NPR just give up and use any piece of oddball radio to fill the gap between All Things Considered and the Marketplace Morning Report.  They should just throw in some more BBC News - you can never go wrong with BBC News.  Instead you get some obscure interview about Austrian Economics, its role in the Cypriot struggle with Turkey and how this affects the modern Latina lesbian family.  There's usually a reference to jazz and a long-dead Hollywood icon too.

Fortunately, for these periods of NPR insanity, there's Catholic Radio.  Last week, when I couldn't take any more NPR deadzone, I jumped terrestrial frequencies and heard the most interesting sermon.  Father so-and-so stated his belief that "You can't out-Solomon Solomon," no matter how hard you try.  His larger point was that the heart of man longs for satisfaction in God, but men mistake this longing for fleshly desires and spend their lives striving to fulfill those desires.  And of course, no man has ever lived who was more able to "succeed" in this striving than Solomon.  Solomon was King after all - he was literally a law unto himself, and there was nothing which limited him from getting what he wanted.  He had an entire kingdom at his disposal.  No day dreaming about building great works or doing great things - just build it, just do it.  No pleasure denied, no experience too costly - all you have to do is command.  Solomon is way ahead of us, he's been there, done that, and realized the meaninglessness of selfish striving.  

No comments:

Post a Comment