WARNING: This post contains SPOILERS for The 2nd Season of The Walking Dead. If you’re anything like me, you are pretty far behind on watching TV and movies. Consider yourself, my fellow sub-rock dwellers, warned.
I’ve heard it said many times in the past few weeks, and most of my life actually, that “you don’t know how you’d act until you live through it.”
My wife and I recently finished watching the second season of The Walking Dead. There’s something to be said for binge-watching a complete season of a television show. The viewer begins to notice patterns, character flaws, certain formats and tricks the writers use to play on your emotions. Something I’ve noticed is the overall lack of bedrock principles by any of the characters in the show. The former civil rights lawyer in the show seems to have left those convictions in the pre-zombified world, the former deputies can’t seem to determine right from wrong without say-so from a person of superior authority, and the wife of a deputy can’t decide whether to abort her child or keep it, and she certainly won’t tell her husband until her decision is made. I experience agony watching these people crash from one crisis into another like a pinball game because they lack a solid foundation.
I’m a friendly guy, and many people seem to seek counsel from me on various moral topics. It seems many times, a friend will spill his guts about the moral turmoil in his life, and conclude with a warning that I can say what I’d do if in his situation, but I won’t know until I’m actually IN his situation. What this shows is a lack of clear and well-defined principles.
Bedrock principles are those resolutions, ideas, beliefs that you hold and guide you through moral crises, particularly when trapped in a difficult situation. For example, let’s say the Catholic teaching that killing the innocent is evil is a bedrock principle. You agree to follow Church teaching on the matter, no matter what.
The satirical news anchor, Jon Stewart, is quoted as saying, “If you don’t stick to your values when they’re being tested, they’re not values; they’re hobbies.” That is possibly the truest thing he’s ever said. What good is it to hold something as valuable if you’re going to surrender it at the first sign of trouble?
Let’s say that for your entire adult life, you held the principle that all innocent human life is to be protected. One day, your 16 year old daughter comes home and tells you she’s pregnant from a friend, but not one she’s dating, a la Juno. Your mind flashes to her health, her future, college, how she’s going to raise the child, will she get married, will she be a struggling single mother the rest of her life…your reputation in the community.
Seeking an abortion comes to mind and suddenly you’re faced with a moral dilemma. Upon what are your principles and beliefs founded? Do you believe killing innocents is wrong because it sounds good and your moral position makes you feel good and morally superior to those who do not? Or do you believe killing an innocent human being is wrong because God said so, because it is sinful, and you will quite possible face losing eternity with God? (Or do you believe killing an unborn isn’t immoral at all because choice, or something.) The first foundation is like the house built on sand. It washes away and crumbles into the sea from the slightest rain. The second foundation is like the house built on rock. It weathers even the strongest storm.
A constant theme in The Walking Dead is the debate about if a particular action will result in the members of the group losing their humanity and becoming cruel animals. For what purpose? Almost none of them believe in God, even fewer actually seem to have any bedrock principles, but the question they never seem to ask is “why?” Why do they want to keep intact their humanity? Without a belief in God, in eternal consequences, there is no meaning to any of it. Any answer they come up with is arbitrary.
I’ve been reading a book called Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients by Irvin D. Yalom, M.D.. In Chapter 44, Dr. Yalom addresses the question of the meaning of life and how many clients struggle with meaninglessness. The chapter closes in this way:
The question of meaning in life is, as the Buddha taught, not edifying. One must immerse oneself into the river of life and let the question drift away.
Imagine if Buddha taught 3rd grade.
Timmy: Mr. Buddha, does life have meaning?
BUDDHA: Don’t worry about it, Timmy. Just live it and suppress any question of meaning because there is none.
Seriously? That’s the answer? The fact that humans even question and are capable of questioning the meaning of life is evidence in itself that there is something bigger than ourselves which has given us meaning, and that our job is to discover that meaning and pursue it. The meaning of life, the purpose of our being here on this planet at this time is this: to know, love, and serve the LORD in this life so we can be with him in the next. All of our actions, thoughts, words, pursuits should be geared toward that objective, and the consequences and/or rewards are eternal. Every earthly trial we face becomes minuscule when examined through the scope of eternity. Being fired, having a car accident, or being audited all find their rightful place as temporary earthly stressors compared to the eternity in heaven for following God’s will.
By love, God has revealed himself and given himself to man. He has thus provided the definitive, superabundant answer to the questions that man asks himself about the meaning and purpose of his life ~Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 68
Once you understand the meaning of life, that God created us and created a purpose for us, there is no need to simply react on a human level, blindly stumbling through the woods hoping to find the path. God has given us the path and the map to everlasting life. Following his plan will prevent you from ever finding yourself in sticky situations of moral compromise.