Views of the Cosmos by Bro. David Steindl-Rast O.S.B.

If we listen attentively, we perceive a deep sorrow in this myth about the creation of laughter. It is a fine but firm bond that links laughter and sorrow.

[Cont. from page 2] 

I selected this particular myth for three reasons: It is one of my favorites; it exemplifies the open worldview with great clarity; and it hints already at the threat of a gradually closing worldview. What makes the central image so unique in this myth is its subtlety: The origin of human life is connected with its mysterious source by an empty outline, an outline drawn on the ground by an animal’s paw, yet mysteriously containing the master mind of all there is – for that is what the Creator stands for.

Will this Creator always be near? No, perhaps some day he will have to live far away. Will have to? Yes, because the man went off with his dog. If we listen attentively, we perceive a deep sorrow in this myth about the creation of laughter. It is a fine but firm bond that links laughter and sorrow. That only we humans can laugh stems from the fact that only we are capable of a sorrow, a grief too deep for words. People tell each other about their little pains. About their great sorrows they are silent. All the myth tells us is that “the man went off with his dog,” – eloquently silent about this alienation from Mystery.

The anthropological data agree with this poetic vision: the Supreme Being is pushed into the background as people become more and more preoccupied with “deities associated with his daily needs, that is, with the minor gods. The Supreme Being thus develops into what has been admirably described as an otiose deity, one resting on his laurels after the creation of the world and leaving it entirely to its own devices.” (2)

“When his work was done, he disappeared,” say the Pomo Indians of California. “Hold together,” he told the world, for the last time, and disappeared. (1)

In other myths estrangement from the Supreme Being is explained by a misunderstanding, by human disobedience, or by some fatal coincidence. Often death and sickness and all human misery are said to result from this estrangement, sometimes as a punishment. But whatever the cause of the estrangement, it sheds a new light on the world. Now the human mind perceives the world in the light of this estrangement. Or shall we call it the “darkness” of estrangement?

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