Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy 5.21

“Do you see then, how in knowledge of all things, the subject uses its own standard of capability, and not those of the objects known?

 

“And this is but reasonable, for every judgment formed is an act of the person who judges, and therefore each man must of necessity perform his own action from his own capability and not the capability of any other.”

 

—from Book 5, Prose 4

 

Whenever I know something, it is certainly made present to me, yet how it appears, which aspects of it are clear and which aspects of it are unclear, will depend on how I am able to actively approach it. The scope of my own powers determines what can be brought within myself, and what must be left outside myself. 

 

Or to put it another way, it isn’t just a matter of the thing observed; the position of the observer is the missing half I too often overlook. Any good physicist knows this, just as should any good philosopher. 

 

Relativity is not the same thing as relativism. Because all things are in relationships does not mean that there is no measure in things. 

 

When my son was a baby, he once grew very angry when he couldn’t squeeze a square peg into a round hole on his shape sorter toy. I had an epiphany right then and there, recognizing that the way he was growing ever more frustrated, finally erupting in a temper tantrum, was pretty much how I was still approaching my life as an adult. He couldn’t know better then, but I should have known better. 

 

He wanted something to fit where it couldn’t fit, not seeing that the parts will only come together in certain ways, following their specific properties. The shape of the peg and the shape of the hole are equally important. I, for one, was neglecting to accept that who I was had to be the medium for what I saw. 

 

“I can’t wrap my hands around it!” does not mean that it cannot be held, only that I can’t embrace all of it. 

 

“I don’t understand it!” does not mean that it can’t be fathomed, only that I am not capable of discerning all the senses of it. 

 

Sometimes I complain that God hasn’t given me exactly what I want, and so I scream out that He is terribly unfair. Clearly, He can’t exist if I have to suffer, can He? 

 

At other times I accuse God of making me His slave, because His Providence already knows everything that I will do. How dare He know me better than I know myself? 

 

Just like the child and his toy, no? The weakness is in my capacity to accept, not in the capacity of anything else to be acceptable. 

Written in 1/2016