Unlimited Societies

 A story is told, and many of us have heard it before:

A little boy with great glee runs across a field collecting grasshoppers.

He bends down to cup on in his hands and it leaps and flies away.  He chases it but as he does there in front of him two more fly away in opposite directions.  After seemingly hours of fun and frivolity, he has several.  He has put them in a box and collected grasses and dandelions for them to eat.  He learns quickly has to be very careful as he lifts the flaps of his box to make sure they have everything they need before going to bed.  The next day, after lunch he remembers his treasures and the fun he had, so he decides to release them, maybe to play tag again.  Only he finds they don't fly out as soon as he lifts the lid, he has to dump them on the ground.  And those grasshoppers don't fly away and leap dozens of feet with a single bound, but rather they crawl around and he has to coax them to jump at all.

So it is with human societies.  Made to leap and climb and joy over every gift, we have found ourselves living in a box.  Most of us are as unaware of our confines as an insect, but we learn early there are limits we are born to.  We learn them inately.  We learn them without thinking.  The grasshoppers learned that they could not jump and fly--it only took a few attempts.  And so, although they were free they continued to live in a box.

This can be seen everywhere in the world.  So often it is obvious when we look abroad and see other's prejudice and hatred.  We see other's hypocrisy.  Others oppressions--others ineptitude and malaise, but we are oblivious to our own. 

I believe in the human spirit is a desire to live limitless lives.  Where does it come from?  God, the unlimited Spirit?  Do we have the minds of our Maker, as GK Chesterton suggested?  Do we have Eternity in our hearts?  Maybe, but are we open even to the possibility?