Why

Image by Denis Collette...!!! via Flickr

On a quiet 1970's fall day, near a lazy sloping hill's crest, I stood with an easel explaining how we recognize that life, specified complexity,  is the result of intelligent design (I borrow the phrase because it works well).  All morning as groups of students waited for the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute bus and departed.  This received as much recognition as a billboard ad with no pictures.  At lunchtime, the bus stop became quiet and deserted.

Quietly, I considered the possibility of more frustration when the students returned. My dark mood was reinforced by the cigarette butts, coke cans and more discards littering the bus stop's unloved, dusty ground.

EUREKA! I would make my point, without words.

A scraggly branch was modified to become a boom-like rake.  I cleaned the ground until it was pristine and uniform.  Stray rocks were brushed to reveal their original finish.  Standing back I studied the scene and positioned them in reference to where the bus would stop and where passengers exit.  I began tracing rhythmic, resonant lines around the rocks. Time flew. I was having fun as I thought of what might happen when the students arrived.  Just beyond the hill's crest the sound of the approaching bus grew louder and I moved out of sight.

The bus arrived.  Students left the bus.  They hesitating for a moment, the students continued their trek. I smiled. These students proved the point I was trying to make earlier. They avoided the ground etchings as they continued to their destination.  Finally, the last student left the bus.  He stopped and considered the ground for several moments, and, finally, I emerged from behind the bush. He recognized me from earlier in the day and asked, "Why?" 

I smiled and explained. “I wanted to prove we can recognize that life is not an accident, without a lot of words.  Life, existence, all of this” – I motioned all around us -- “is the result of a designer, God, whatever you want to call the creator of all this.  I created these patterns in the dust.  You noticed and responded.  The creator has caused everything we see to take form and in some cases to live.  We are learning to be response-able. The first step is to ask, “Why?”

David Belfort

Share this post :

Technorati tags: Intelligent Design, God, Designer, Bus Stop, Students, Rensselaer, RPI, Specified complexity, dust, eureka, Zen, Zen garden