Delight as knowledge

In one of my favorite novels - Little, Big - by John Crowley - a chapter heading is: "What makes us happy, makes us wise." In light of what we have read so far of Hart's book, I would recast that sentence into : "What brings us delight can bring us wisdom and a glimpse of God."

(We are not in a philosophy class, so we needn't parse out the meanings of the words and end up with a pile of conjecture. In general we know what 'happy' and 'wise' mean, don't we? And we really don't think that extremes - such as a person who gets delight out of sadistic acts - are really 'happy' in any normal sense.)

Annie Dillard in her wonderful book 'Pilgrim at Tinker Creek' tells of a moment when she gazed out on the beauty of a vast mountain view and that nature 'picked her up and rang her like a bell.' Similarly, on vacation a few years ago driving on Highway 50, the 'loneliest road in America' , Ronda and I were watching the flat flat sagebrushed prairie going by, looking hot and boring. Until we got out to stretch our legs. I remember it clearly - the utter lack of man made noise - a silence you could hear! - just the chittering of many small birds, a hawk way up in crystal clear blue skies, the very fragrant (and cool!) breezes that wandered through the sagebrush and other plants, and far off mountains (the Ruby Range, I think) topped with white, white snow. Beautiful. It pierced our hearts. We were 'surprised by joy.' We were delighted.

If we (all of us) have developed the right kind of 'seeing' - this type of experience is a kind of knowledge that yields wisdom. It carries with it a hint of the infinite pleasures that blow from the lands of righteousness, the kingdom of God.

That word 'pleasure' is certain to upset a certain kind of reader. We'll talk about that shortly.