I first read this writeup about a month ago. I've rarely had such a visceral negative reaction to something on E2. But Mr. Graff
missed the point.
He said: "there's a tiny bird sitting on some bare, cold branch...and it dies and drops into the snow...and no one ever misses it or notices that it's gone...but you know what? It is noticed...by something greater than the bird, greater than the tree and greater than the snow. What ever you believe is higher is your own business, different strokes for different folks and all that, but whatever you believe, there's got to be something higher that sees it."
This quote from Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2 comes just at the point when Hamlet is preparing to fight his final battle. Since he's a tragic hero, we know he's going to die. Even he and his friend Horatio know he's at risk, and Horatio offers to buy him some time. But Hamlet replies:
Not a whit, we defy augury: there's a special
providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now,
'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be
now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the
readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he
leaves, what is't to leave betimes?
This is where the famously indecisive prince makes his decision. He has come to understand that no matter what happens, he will die. Accepting that, he is free from the fear and turmoil that's gripped him throughout the play. His fate is sealed--and, he now understands, always has been. He can go calmly to meet his fate.
But there's another layer to this quote, for Shakespeare was quoting Jesus, who said: (Matthew 10:26-32, NIV):
So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Jesus, like Hamlet, is telling us that we don't have to be afraid of death. When good people go out to preach the Word of God, some of them are going to die. But it's all part of God's plan. No matter what happens to you in the world, no matter how bad things get, you can be sure that God is caring for you just as God cares for the tiny, almost worthless sparrows.
I suppose that scholars will debate on whether Shakespeare intended Hamlet to be thinking of the afterlife, but Hamlet and Jesus are both trying to let us know that we should get over our fear of death. I'm a Christian, but I have to admit that I would rather share a world with brave atheists than paralyzed Christians.
This passage of the Bible also has an important message that we don't necessarily want to admit. Jesus says that God wills the fall of the sparrow--the cute little bird dies because God wants it to. This is not an entirely comforting message--what kind of God would do that? We never get a satisfactory answer. Instead, we get the cross. God makes choices that we can't understand or even justify, choices that cause us to suffer. But the Gospel--the good news--is that God isn't up in the sky standing outside our suffering. No, God is in the world, getting dirty, taking on the weaknesses of humanity, and even suffering a terrible death. The Christian God doesn't give us the answers, but does take on the burden of living the same crappy life that the rest of us have to put up with.
P.S. I have to add that I don't think much of Mr. Graff's self-congratulory attitude about his daily wave to a lonely guy. Imagine how he could have affected the
Walking Man if he'd stopped to talk to him--or given him a ride. A gift in which you don't expose or risk yourself isn't much of a gift.
P.P.S. I've linked to
nodeshells.
I dare you to fill them.