It’s startling to realize, suddenly, how often we strive to understand a situation by limiting it. We plunge in hastily, drawing lines, cutting off examples, offloading data we can’t integrate, collapsing tension we can’t handle. We hunt for stereotypes to cling to or condemn, until even our encounters with stereotypes become stereotyped.

The nature of the Trinity, the afterlife of pets, the differences between men and women, the psychology of politics – is there an end to the list of things we try to understand by making them as small and simplistic as possible? We’re rarely satisfied until all the evidence has been distorted.

Life is not simple. Not even in its smallest detail. God is not simple. Death is not simple. Is even a molecule simple? Can it be? Continue reading →