thread: 2006-08-31 : I think my expectations are screwed
On 2006-09-07, Sydney Freedberg wrote:
I'll get to everyone else later today, but I can't resist answering Vincent, though, even though he's right that that my math isn't up to the task:
Rarity is irrelevant to absolute value: A copy of a mass market paperback collection of Shakespeare's sonnets is a much more common item than the sole surviving copy of a self-published book by someone who consistently rhymes "sighs of love" with "dove above," but the Shakespeare book is still of far greater value.
Likewise, a human being who almost never kisses his or her children is of less value (all else being equal) than a human being who hugs and kisses his or her children, even though parents who show some kind of affection are far more common. It's only when you introduce eternal life into the equation that you get to multiply by infinity and discover that either person has infinite worth in God's eyes.
But Our Lord said this all much better than I can—you just have to think seriously about what the old familiar parable really means:
If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.—Matthew 18:12-13.
