Nothing New Under the Sun
That phrase comes from Ecclesiastes, where Solomon laments the sameness and repetition of life: it’s all been done before, and it will all be done again. It accompanies the idea of futility as well, where one wonders what purpose there is in continuing to discuss things that have been examined for ages.
But it seems to me that the reason we keep going over the same ground is because things need to be repeated in the language of the day. The underlying principles of major issues such as religion and politics have to be relearned by each generation, spoken in their terms and illustrated by their experiences. As the saying goes, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”, so to keep the debates alive can help to prevent past mistakes--- but only if people care enough to listen.
Against that backdrop I am wondering today what else I can talk about here in my blog. I’ve covered many subjects over the years, focusing on the tough questions and confronting teachers who, either through malice or misunderstanding, have harmed many or brought disrepute on the faith. But I’ve written in the language of my generation, through the experiences and events of the last 40 years. Now we have “micro thinking” (I refer to the term “microblogging”, as in Twitter and Facebook). People seem uninterested in discussions of depth or import these days and won’t stick around to hear an argument longer than a paragraph. It isn’t necessarily wrong or the fault of individuals, it’s just the world we live in, and a world I don’t do well in.
So tell me, both of you who still stop by (am I right?), is there something I haven’t covered that you’d like to see here, something about the Christian faith? I have other blogs for news, social, and Bible study, just for my own amusement mostly, so other topics can be covered there if you’d like. If not, this blog will still stay open but I doubt I’ll be posting much in the future. It’s just that every time I consider responding to something I read elsewhere, I keep remembering that I’ve already covered that in the past.