Teaching Existentialism to a Hop on Pop Crowd

While driving my two sons home after an inspired field trip to the Natural History Museum, backseat questions arose regarding the dinosaur exhibit and a blinking chart tracking the migration of Homo sapiens. My opportunity to pontificate magically appeared. Let me briefly add that practicing law never allowed me the opportunity to orate on such a variety of endless topics to a captive audience like motherhood has. Anyway, Joey asked a brilliant question, and I was elated to be prepared for it – for it raised in essence the dilemma inherent in creation and evolution beliefs. Actually the question was:

“If God created the world in seven days how did the dinosaurs live before that?”

I knew what he was really asking. How do we resolve the conflict that religious culture has provided with stories of a deity creating human life in the face of clear scientific evidence to the contrary? What are we to believe? I felt these questions – and my answer - would shape their future and their spirits as they grew to be young men.

I gripped the steering wheel and looked in the rear view mirror. Their faces were young, innocent, trusting and a bit salty from the fistful of French fries they were holding in their hands. Boldly I began. I explained the fascinating phenomena of single celled organisms growing in the organic soup of Earth’s oceans billions of years ago. How these single cells adapted and grew into fish and then finally through a long period of adaptation crawled out of the water onto their bellies as the first amphibians. How more and more Earth creatures grew in this evolutionary capacity until finally the first known species of Man walked upright and with an extraordinary intellectual capacity dominated the Earth.

Using my hands to indicate the import of my next philosophical explanation, I held fast to the steering wheel with one hand and waved the other hand in an expansive explanation of the universe. They both stared at me, wide-eyed and fascinated. Traffic loomed by. I continued.

However, a life lived on the pure rational model of a scientifically calculated universe is not much of a life. Man needs to understand himself and his existence, to know that life has meaning. And for this we create myths that help us define and understand our life. Myths are not necessarily literally true, but they are true in a metaphorical way that profoundly defines us as more than evolving creatures, but in fact spiritual beings with a connection to God and the spiritual powers of the Universe, however they may choose to define that in their own lives.

In a grand gesture of their spiritual internal essence I raised both hands prayer-like toward the ceiling, locking the steering wheel with my knees, as traffic slowed to a near halt. Concluding, I awaited some question that would show me they had grasped the ungraspable. I hoped to have condensed my own belief to its purest state, rendering its meaning simple enough for the smallest child.

Joey looked at me quizzically, his head tilted and his mouth opening in contemplative thought. Then he asked,

“Mommy, do you know anyone that can drive a car with their feet?”

Hmmmm. A long silence. I sighed and shook my head.

“No, Joey, I do not know anyone that can drive a car with their feet.”

Then Ben interjected, “Ari’s mom can drive a car with her feet.”

Despite my deflated silence they continued for several miles discussing who they knew that might be able to drive a car with their feet.

Oh well, maybe this new topic (fascinating as it is) will allow me to research and pontificate on the Americans with Disabilities Act for next week. Hmmm. Maybe that would lead to a field trip to FDR’s Little White House. Existential life continues.