Published: October 31, 2009 11:04 pm      

Evidence of a higher power is in the stars

I was bragging to a guy named Jim Gwinn about something I had done once, and he told me that even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while. I figured since he was a good friend it was OK for him to insult me. That’s what good friends are for. You would be surprised, though, how often you can use that statement to set someone back a step or two. I am not sure whether it’s because we brag a lot or because we accidentally find acorns quite often. It’s probably a little bit of both.

Just last night I was reading in an old book of poetry and quotes I bought at an auction, and I came across a passage that started me thinking. (I still do that on good days.) The passage said you must use the talents you are given if you expect to gain much in the world, because this world is full of raw material, but none of it is lying around in finished condition. I know how true that is because over my lifetime I have built many things. Most of us have. If I am going to manufacture a part for automotive, the metal isn’t bent into the shape I need, I have to build dies to bend it. If I am going to build a house the boards aren’t cut to the length I need, I have to saw them. I have to use my talents to build.

There are all kinds of raw materials in our world just waiting for someone to use them to make something, and did you ever wonder how it all got here? Well, scientists tell us a certain number of elements over time developed into one thing or another because of pressure, heat, etc., and they are right, I suppose, but who passed the law that said these materials we need and use had to develop that way? I never cease to marvel at the intelligence and the trial and error that has wrought the many inventions that shape our world using the raw materials that just happen to be here.

The question is do they just happen to be here? Nancy Smith gave me a disc that has screwed up my whole world. It’s a disc that uncovers some incredible things. I always thought of my universe as the earth and the sun, a few planets and stars, and something else out there that was of no importance. But it is of importance, because once you see what is on this disc, you have to think a whole different way. It’s nearly more than I can wrap my head around.

People of no importance are trying to gain control of our world, and it is a mere speck in the universe. There are stars out there that are trillions of miles away, and if you took a pencil and made the smallest dot you could on one of them, it would still be larger than the earth would be by comparison. Can you imagine that?

Now, sit back and look at our earth circling the sun, rotating as it does to give us our seasons, and having just the right atmosphere for us to breathe and live. Look at the night sky with the moon and the trillions of stars, and consider their distance and size. Isn’t this some acorn to find?

I know there are times when luck plays a part in our lives, but to be this lucky is almost more than one can ask, don’t you think? And, don’t you think that those of us who lean toward self-aggrandizement are really whistling in the dark, considering how easily we could all disappear if just one little thing stopped working right as far as keeping our planet in its orbit? We could all be gone in the blink of an eye.

In all of my years as a diemaker, I have yet to throw the blocks of steel into the air and have them fall to earth finished as I need them. I have yet to throw the finished tools at the multi-slide and have them land on it set up and ready to run. I’ve yet to build a house that I didn’t have to fit each board into place. I have yet to find the big acorn. Oh, I find little ones once in a great while, but my luck has been limited. In fact I have decided it is my lot in life to have to work for what I get.

I have always leaned toward believing the universe didn’t just happen, that it was created just like I have had to create things, but before Nancy gave me that disc, there was always a little doubt to hide behind. You know, she could have baked me a pie or brownies, or something, and I would have appreciated it, and thought of her kindly as I ate it, but no, she had to give me that disc. Now, I am certain I will have to answer to someone for everything I have done. As the wicked witch in “The Wizard of Oz” said to Dorothy, “What a world, what a world.”

• Joe Bowyer is a columnist for the Pharos-Tribune. He can be reached through the newspaper at ptnews@pharostribune.com