The French are pretty good at metaphysical fiction. And I sort of like it. Not infrequently, they project their own views onto personages of the Bible and I say hell, go ahead! Project all you want! At the end of the day it tells me more about you than it tells me about those personages, but that’s okay, it’s your thinking I’m interested in.
In The Gospel According to Pilate, Jesus starts off as a pretty normal youth, albeit a very sensitive one. He’s going out with a very nice girl, and they go out to eat. At some point while they’re eating, a beggar woman and her child come to ask for food. The girl gets a bit exasperated at always being expected to "care" and tells them to come back later, she just wants to tune them out for a moment. Jesus understands that domestic happiness, (and maybe all happiness) is premised upon tuning out the needs of others, and he decides not to. If happiness means indifference he will give up happiness. He’ll jump into the hurt instead. He breaks off with the girl. From now on he’ll explore a way beyond indifference.
And I’m wondering whether all happiness is premised upon ignoring the plight of others. I used to be unable to snap out of my conciousness just because something pleasurable had come along. Now I recognise this as a survival skill. When I eat out, I’m quite good at forgetting the child that got crushed by an earthquake. I oscillate between caring and not caring. I’m either on the ball or I’m not. I got really good at tuning out people.
In The Gospel According to Pilate, Jesus starts off as a pretty normal youth, albeit a very sensitive one. He’s going out with a very nice girl, and they go out to eat. At some point while they’re eating, a beggar woman and her child come to ask for food. The girl gets a bit exasperated at always being expected to "care" and tells them to come back later, she just wants to tune them out for a moment. Jesus understands that domestic happiness, (and maybe all happiness) is premised upon tuning out the needs of others, and he decides not to. If happiness means indifference he will give up happiness. He’ll jump into the hurt instead. He breaks off with the girl. From now on he’ll explore a way beyond indifference.
And I’m wondering whether all happiness is premised upon ignoring the plight of others. I used to be unable to snap out of my conciousness just because something pleasurable had come along. Now I recognise this as a survival skill. When I eat out, I’m quite good at forgetting the child that got crushed by an earthquake. I oscillate between caring and not caring. I’m either on the ball or I’m not. I got really good at tuning out people.
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