We all live with some riddles and some mysteries in our life. My ridiculous riddle is figuring out the price tags in supermarkets. My sublime mystery is figuring out the Vatican in Rome...!
Now I grant, supermarkets try to help your comparison shopping by listing the per unit cost for most items. But that works only when products X, Y and Z have the very same number of units. If not, this calls for on-the-spot multiplication. And even that's not enough if X is on sale and you happen to have coupons for Z. I've seen some scrupulous shoppers work with a calculator, but that brings back ghoulish memories of Mr. Horton in Trigonometry.
Better to admit the cosmos is complex, not ours to always understand, and just go with Z!
A far more challenging issue is figuring out the Vatican. This is the oldest still-functioning institution of any kind in the Western world. Its Popes have earned the status of the world's single most prominent religious office. In recent years, they have drawn the biggest crowds ever seen in human history. And yet despite all this, the pronouncements from the Vatican continue to roil the passions and the theologies of Muslims, Jews and Catholics alike.
And so one is left with the mystery of this unique institution. With all its past errors and current disputes, how does it remain intact? What holds it and a billion Catholics together?
The Vatican speaks of the Holy Spirit left by Jesus to "remain with my Church." Critics like the DaVinci Code talk about the role of conspiracies and corruptions. Reformers talk about keeping the faith but changing the church. One is left to wonder.
Sometimes, though, you simply can't answer all of life's riddle and mysteries. So in my case I usually choose the least line of resistance. I buy the products with the best saving coupons, and I buy into the church with the best saving promises. In each case, time alone will tell....
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