There are very few absolutes in life. Having spent a lot of time at university, I once thought that there were no absolutes. This is the disease known as post-modernism.
But I always knew this was wrong. Even when I was most vehemently arguing that everything is relative I knew that some things aren't.
When you're dying, you believe in God.
When you're in love, you don't half love someone else.
When you have a true friend, you would do anything for them.
These are not relatives. They are either or situations. It's a trick of language that one of the least relative things in your life are your 'relatives'. They're either related to you by blood or they aren't. They are absolute in their relativity. Everything that matters in life - truly matters - is one of these. Family, friends, football.
The things that don't matter, but which we spend so much time and effort on, are things like status, wealth, competition.
I love these things as much as the next person, and I would never give up any of them. But ultimately they are not important. They are all dependent upon comparison for their meaning. Travelling the world this year, I have become starkly aware that wealth, for example, is a truly localised, relative concept. One can be wealthy in one place and enjoy the benefits of this appelation with a lot less than in another community. A wealthy person in an average suburb of Lima has a lot less than even a below average person in a suburb of Manhattan. But the Peruvian is rich, the New Yorker poor.
But when you are a lover or a friend, there is no comparison. It is absurd to ask whether you love your lover more than your other lover. There may be exceptions - if you're an Ottomon Sultan with a large harem, or a tyrannical dictator like Mao or maybe have a faithful wife and a hot girlfriend like Vladimir Putin. But to borrow a trite phrase which will soon become rather famous - in relationships there is a quantum of solace.
This quantum is an absolute. It is the only quantum which directly affects souls - if it exists in the material realm we as humans are less sensitive to it. It is the essence of true religious feeling. And we should worship it every day of our lives.
Posts
