“The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it…Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.” Elrond (1.283)
“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” I Corinthians 1:27
This will be a little bit longer than my normal blog, because I am using this opportunity to process a challenge I received recently.
On Tuesday, August 4, over two hundred Christian school teachers from all over Tucson, and as far away as Casa Grande, descended on Catalina Foothills Church for our annual “Back to School” rally. Our guest presenter this year was Jay Winslow, who is affiliated with Worldview Academy during the summers. His theme for the day was Worldview: The Image of the Logos.
In his afternoon session, He presented a list of four virtues identified by German Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper, and challenged us to think about how to pursue them in our lives. Pieper’s four virtues are wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance.
As I considered the two quotes at the top of this page (which Winslow also placed at the head of his exercise), I was struck by the contrast between what “small hands can do” and where the “eyes of the great” are. Considering ourselves at Dove Mountain as “small hands,” here are just the beginnings of some of my thoughts on how we must pursue virtue in our context (as opposed to where the “eyes of the great” are looking).
Wisdom: Small hands should be looking at and passing on the “old ways” revealed by prophets and history (sometimes requires the actual reading of books!). The eyes of the great are on science, technology, and media to give us wisdom.
Justice: Small hands must find the widows and orphans (literal and virtual), and act on their behalf. The eyes of the great are on government and legislation to solve all problems.
Courage: Small hands must point out when the emperor is naked, and not be afraid to say so (all the while careful to keep his own clothes mended and intact!). The eyes of the great look for approval from those in power and nod sagely in affirmation when they spout nonsense.
Temperance: Small hands come alongside those who are weak and struggling and offer to carry part of the load for them, even going the extra mile when necessary. The eyes of the great assume that only the fittest of the species will survive, and act as though men must be protected by a police state from their own wrong choices.
As I said above, these thoughts are only the beginning of a discussion on what the “small hands” of Dove Mountain should be doing in order to build the virtuous community. Who would like to continue the discussion?
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