The Philosophy Professor

I met a philosophy professor the other day. Well, actually I see him a few times a week. He frequents the same coffee shop I do. We have often caught each other’s eye over our laptops from across the room. It was just a matter of time before we struck up a conversation. He is a very nice man and very smart. Just like me, he is also writing a book and enjoys the coffee shop atmosphere.

I asked him what his book was about. He talked for a couple of minutes, and as best as I could tell, it seemed to be a book about nothing. At first I was impressed cause I’m pretty sure that writing a book about nothing is harder than writing about something.

I pressed him for a little more information. “Really, I am writing about the human condition,” he said. He then began to explain the state of mankind in such abstract terms that I really had a hard time following - “which is good if you are philosophy professor,” I thought.

“What is pain, what is joy or love?” He asked. “They are just feelings, particles bouncing off other particles - just chance. Nothing in this universe is sure; everything is determined by what you feel.”

“It really is a book about nothing.” I thought again…

He went on to say that man is the sum of what we feel - emotionally and physically. There is no great purpose or meaning to life and all our philosophies and theologies are simply the wild imagining of men who need to feel a sense of purpose. In the end life is simply about seeking joy and trying to avoid pain.

“So, it’s a book about nothing then?” I asked sadly. He smiled. It was a tired smile. “In a way, yes.” He said. I couldn’t think of anything to say, about his book. It was overwhelming, the idea of writing a book about nothing. I couldn’t even find a common denominator, as my sincerest prayer is that my book would be about something.

“So, how long have you been working on it?” I finally asked.

“For almost 20 years.”

He has been writing a book about nothing for almost 20 years! This broke my heart. That a man would write faithfully for 20 years is amazing. That a man can write about nothing for 20 years is excruciating.

It dawned on me as I stood there that if you’re writing about nothing, then its probably gonna take a long time. I felt sad for this tired man who seems to have been searching for some truth in a universe where he is convinced truth doesn’t exist.

I couldn’t take it anymore. So I asked him the question that should never be asked of a philosophy professor. “Where does God fit in.”

He was quick to both acknowledge that religion plays a role in philosophy but also that religion was for weak minded individuals.

“Good thing I didn’t tell him what I was writing about,” I thought.

But I hadn’t asked him about religion, I’d asked about God. He had done what many often do and confused the two as being one and the same. So I tried the same question from a different angle. “Where does love fit in?”

He looked at me - he seemed exhausted, as if this question was just too much, “Love is a subjective feeling.” He responded.

“But what if it isn’t…” I asked. “What if love is the very foundation of everything? What if Love is the beginning and the end and everything in between?”

He just looked at me.

What if Love created everything? What if Love saw what He had created and said, “It is good.” Which is something Love would probably say. What if Love has all authority but not all control, as Love does not control because Love is about freedom. What if Love set you free, free to be loved and to love? What if Love wasn’t just a feeling but a tangible expression of that same freedom? What if Love could be truly known by every person on earth? What if Love was a person who walked the earth and gave love away to any who would receive?

These thoughts ran through my heart. But I didn’t know how to express them any clearer than the questions I had already posed.

But thinking about it now, it sure would be a great idea for his book! Love. It’s a profoundly infinite and beautiful subject. Another writer once put it this way, “If every one of (the things Love did) was written down, I suppose the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” (John 22:25)

If only my new Philosophy Professor friend new this love, well, then he could know what it is to write with purpose. He could spend the next twenty years trying to fill the world with books about something.

Before he packed up to go he asked what I was writing about. I told him that I was writing about love and that I too would never be finished writing.

He said he would like to hear more about it sometime...