or Illumination of Ideas
This is a continuation of my last post Adam Hamilton’s Color Theory.
I want to be fair to Adam, because in my prior post I stated he’s assuming both sides can agree on 7 points:
- Legitimate concerns of both sides
- Life of mother exception
- Decrease is desirable
- Universal birth control access and info
- Pregnancy duration & moral complexity
- Coercion
- Safety
The single thread running through these is a concern, perhaps love, for other humans. His illustrations reinforce this idea of a single dimension.
Yet I hope my extended illustration showed we can’t always assume others see things in common with us, even though we’re using the same language and words, and appear to have the same desire.
My prior post was about seeing, and that’s critical. Adam clearly sees himself as pro-life, while others see him as pseudo or perhaps semi pro-life. As I pointed out, how we perceive ourselves within the context of the problem is an essential starting point. Do we truly understand the common element? That light – absolute transcendent Truth, must be at the core of our being and we must willfully be obedient to it. If we’re not intellectually, emotionally and spiritually honest with ourselves, then there is little hope we’ll be honest with others. If two sides cannot agree about this truth, then there is no common ground at all.
The conflict between abortion-choice and pro-life is a clash of two distinct world-views about truth. The metaphysical grounds aren’t the same – it’s multi-dimensional yet primarily a spiritual contest. If you want to talk about a single continuum, you’d have to address how each individual views life itself, and what they truly believe when it comes to their own origin, meaning, morality and destiny.
Adam has an incredibly powerful and moving testimony about his own origin which places him firmly within the context of the problem, giving him a legitimacy and a voice as one who was redeemed.
But how does Adam see the meaning of his life? What about his morality, and destiny? How has this origin shaped his view of others and is that viewed through the light of absolute transcendent truth? Does he see a cohesiveness, an intrinsic quality that declares his being as a whole – as a human being? Do others see him with the same intrinsic meaning?
It is not enough to believe we hold the truth, we need to constantly pursue it and we need to know it’s a true light and not merely a reflection.
Adam’s mother loved him dearly and was willing to sacrifice her life for him. In other words her focus was not on herself, but on another – specifically Adam.
She saw something that transcended herself, that went beyond her immediate situation. Through love, she caught a glimpse of Life, the Light of the World himself. In doing so, she sought the illumination of an idea she joyfully called Adam, a man who is still pursuing the Truth.
For those who are in the dark, whether it is origin, meaning, morality or destiny, only a glimmer of light can be revealed at a time, because too much light revealed at once would be blinding.
Yet every agreement starts with the smallest perceivable amount of light, and that is sufficient to say we have something in common, even if it’s just a shade of gray.