You're Not Deep*

A few months ago my little brother played Young Pilgrims by the Shins for me, and I liked it well enough to request Chutes Too Narrow for Christmas, and my middle-little brother came through with it when gifts were flying thick and fast. I've been listening to and enjoying it, but the sentiment of the title song is jarring.

Of course I raised to gather courage from those
Lofty tales so tried and true and
If you're able I'd suggest it 'cause this
Modern thought can get the best of you.

The idea that faith is a matter of "if you're able" is really irksome, as is the implication that this ability will be lost as one grows older, presumably experiencing and suffering more. He goes on to suggest that he's had to develop a lot of character in order to live this way:

But I learned fast how to keep my head up 'cause I
Know there is this side of me that
Wants to grab the yoke from the pilot and just
Fly the whole mess into the sea.

In fact, the reality is the opposite. Modern thought does not produce character. Any immature idiot can be a despairing cynic, but one must first have suffering, then endurance, then character, to finally be able to hope. (Romans 5:3-4). And the promise of hope is in the love of God, which in fact we already have.

Perhaps this catches me because I have had much more suffering since becoming more devout. Suffering tears away the appearance of things, revealing the inner truth. This is not easily borne,† and really requires the Divine Mercy. It's in the devil's interest to keep a non-Christian away from truth and thus more easily lied to, so the amount of suffering of a Nietzsche devoté is probably minimal. But there is a lot of laceration, the pain of which must be respected but certainly not admired.

However, if the young pilgrims are Evangelicals of the cockeyed optimist variety, it is probably better to let their ruthless cheerfulness steamroll past us poor mortals who still suffer in this valley of tears.

* This is an annoying song reference, but only Mrs. Bear will get it.
† Human kind / Cannot bear very much reality. (T.S. Eliot)