This is a painting of the Tower of Babel. Most of us could lay out the basics of the story. It is part of the Book of Genesis. Humanity becomes so cocksure that they decide to build a tower to the heavens. God in yet another pique of Old Testament neurosis and jealousy smashes the tower and curses humanity with multiple tongues so that they cannot ever cooperate so successfully again. That's my 60 second summary. Before I continue now, I will go to my Bible and reread the story before continuing. Perhaps you could do the same.
Not much there really, Genesis 11. Actually I was surprised - no smashing of the tower - just a confusion of the languages and a scattering across the globe. Interestingly it also follows on the heels of the Noah story just after God promising to never destroy all of humanity again. A wee bit dysfunctional this O.T. God, eh?
It's funny really how this brief episode in Genesis gets lumped in there with the really big story lines. Is this just an American curiosity courtesy of some Cecil B. DeMille Hollywood special effect that has wormed it's way into our cultural memory? Or is it something deeper? --a greater truth that touches us perhaps.
Recent events--personal, national, global--have me thinking again about how ultimately imperfect communication really is. We have this amazing gift starting with the evolution of our brains and mouths allowing us to vocalize and form auditory symbols based on sound - words that form language.
My dogs attempt to communicate - Zoe has this whine that can mean: a) I need to go outside and squat, b) I want to go outside and play, c) the water dish is empty, d) pay attention to me you have food, e) the other dog has the rawhide, Daddy, and I want it... I have to work hard to notice and interpret what it means.
I forget that I have to work nearly as hard in interpreting what other humans mean with their communication, and, with all the hard work, it is often not an exact understanding.
In addition to our abilities as a species to speak and write and read, we have invented numerous devices to share our thoughts and words - books, printing, telegraph, telephone, television, computers, the Internet, instant messaging, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter...
I add those last few as examples of how speed and convenience have trumped our efforts to explain and be exact...need we really say more than "WTF?" or "how r u?" The brilliance of Dostoevsky and Shakespeare are no less misinterpreted.
I used to think the Tower of Babel story was just about a simple little tale to explain how we ended up with different languages all over the globe and how that keeps us from communicating well. Maybe...just maybe...it is another story from the Old Testament that explains how we got to be human. How we continually strive for Truth and God and Heaven (as Robert Browning said, "A man's reach should exceed his grasp or what's a Heaven for?") and how despite our God given communication skills we repeatedly trip and fall and stumble in attempting to communicate that Truth or God or Heaven.
We end up merely speaking in tongues trying to interpret what the whine means this time.
Peace.
Not much there really, Genesis 11. Actually I was surprised - no smashing of the tower - just a confusion of the languages and a scattering across the globe. Interestingly it also follows on the heels of the Noah story just after God promising to never destroy all of humanity again. A wee bit dysfunctional this O.T. God, eh?
It's funny really how this brief episode in Genesis gets lumped in there with the really big story lines. Is this just an American curiosity courtesy of some Cecil B. DeMille Hollywood special effect that has wormed it's way into our cultural memory? Or is it something deeper? --a greater truth that touches us perhaps.
Recent events--personal, national, global--have me thinking again about how ultimately imperfect communication really is. We have this amazing gift starting with the evolution of our brains and mouths allowing us to vocalize and form auditory symbols based on sound - words that form language.
My dogs attempt to communicate - Zoe has this whine that can mean: a) I need to go outside and squat, b) I want to go outside and play, c) the water dish is empty, d) pay attention to me you have food, e) the other dog has the rawhide, Daddy, and I want it... I have to work hard to notice and interpret what it means.
I forget that I have to work nearly as hard in interpreting what other humans mean with their communication, and, with all the hard work, it is often not an exact understanding.
In addition to our abilities as a species to speak and write and read, we have invented numerous devices to share our thoughts and words - books, printing, telegraph, telephone, television, computers, the Internet, instant messaging, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter...
I add those last few as examples of how speed and convenience have trumped our efforts to explain and be exact...need we really say more than "WTF?" or "how r u?" The brilliance of Dostoevsky and Shakespeare are no less misinterpreted.
I used to think the Tower of Babel story was just about a simple little tale to explain how we ended up with different languages all over the globe and how that keeps us from communicating well. Maybe...just maybe...it is another story from the Old Testament that explains how we got to be human. How we continually strive for Truth and God and Heaven (as Robert Browning said, "A man's reach should exceed his grasp or what's a Heaven for?") and how despite our God given communication skills we repeatedly trip and fall and stumble in attempting to communicate that Truth or God or Heaven.
We end up merely speaking in tongues trying to interpret what the whine means this time.
Peace.
3 comments:
As I mentioned over at my place, not only do we trip and fall, we have the silly habit of building these great "edifices of ourselves" out of cheap crap--mud brick instead of good quality stone. That's pretty human, too!
Thought provoking. Thanks.
You're welcome, DP. Thanks for visiting.
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