Sunday, May 11, 2008

What the Doctor Ordered

I was looking for a certain quote by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, but I found one I hadn't seen before instead.

I can just hear him telling this story, smiling the whole way through. He has such a loping, easy laughter and grace about him - like he knows a great big secret that we don't. I couldn't help but smiling and laughing while looking through pictures of him. I believe he is a Saint, capital S.




Adam is in the garden. And there he was having a great time with the animals and gamboling all over the place, but God looked on and said. uh-uh. It’s not good for that guy to be all by his lonesome.

And God said to Adam, “Well Adam –”

Adam said, “Yes?”

“How about choosing a mate for yourself from the animals?”

So God let animals pass in front of Adam in procession and God said, “What about this one?”

“Nope,” said Adam.

“And what about this one?”

“No.”

“And this one?”

“Not on your life!”

And God say okay, and put Adam to sleep. And as the story goes, out of Adam’s rib, God created this delectable creature.

And when Adam awakes, he looks and says “Wow!” and “This is what the doctor ordered!”

It’s a story that is meant to convey a very profound truth about you and me. That you and I are incomplete, that we can’t, in fact, be human in isolation.

In solitary confinement, as it were.

I wouldn’t know how to be human except by learning it from other human beings. I need you in order for me to be me. I need other human beings in order for me to be human. …

The totally self-sufficient human being is, in fact, subhuman.

One of the sayings in our country is … “A person is a person through other persons.”

We are family.

1 comment:

Davis said...

"a person is a person through other persons..."

Magnificent.