Theory vs Reality
With quotes from Phantastes by George MacDonald
Many times throughout history, scientific theory and understanding has been proven to be significantly different from reality. However, at the time the theories were developed they seemed solid and accurate. Thousands of years ago the sun clearly went around the earth, as it could be seen from direct observation. Later, bleeding was the best medication doctors could give to patients for various maladies. Atoms were similar to plum pudding, radioactive materials could be used to improve virility, and so on. The thing is, the people who believed all of those things were not any less intelligent than you and me, they simply did not have a full picture to look at and were doing the best they could with some faulty assumptions.
We do the same thing regularly in our own everyday lives. We make an assumption, based on incomplete information, and we give the possibility of a bad outcome more weight than the potential good that could come. In other words, we create a theoretical future, where we know very little about the variables involved, and we assume that is the true outcome without ever testing the experiment. We assume if we ask that girl out she will say no, and our heart would be shattered forever! We assume that if we put ourselves out there to make friends, they will not like us. We assume that because we have always been late to things we cannot improve and so we don’t try. We assume that because we have never enjoyed exercise that there is no physical activity we can learn to love. We assume. We theorize. We don’t act for our own good or the good of others.
In the novel Phantastes by George MacDonald, a side story is told of a student at the University of Prague, Cosmo Von Wehrstahl. While at a pawn shop he finds a mirror in which he does not see the room he is in, but a more beautiful reflection of the room, and a beautiful woman within it. It might be described as a theoretical room where everything is better. He is a poor student, but spends all of his money to get the mirror and stares into it every day, eventually falling in love with the woman who cannot see or hear him. Then one day, she is able to see and hear him. She begs of him to break the mirror, claiming that she is a prisoner in the mirror and if he will break it she will be free:
“She burst into tears, and, kneeling before him in her turn, said—
“Cosmo, if thou lovest me, set me free, even from thyself: break the mirror.”
“And shall I see thyself instead?”
“That I cannot tell. I will not deceive thee; we may never meet again.”
A fierce struggle arose in Cosmo’s bosom. Now she was in his power. She did not dislike him at least; and he could see her when he would. To break the mirror would be to destroy his very life, to banish out of his universe the only glory it possessed. The whole world would be but a prison, if he annihilated the one window that looked into the paradise of love. Not yet pure in love, he hesitated.
With a wail of sorrow, the lady rose to her feet. “Ah! He loves me not; he loves me not even as I love him; and alas! I care more for his love than even for the freedom I ask.”
Cosmo fears that if he breaks the mirror, he will never see the lady again. He fears losing something he does not actually possess. The possibility of losing half of something was too much, and so he proved that his “love” was closer to selfish passion. The mirror then mysteriously vanishes and Cosmo’s ability to help the lady seems to be gone. Cosmo feels enough guilt that he does seek a way to find and break the mirror and later in the story is able to redeem himself, but the difficulty and the cost are much greater than they would have been had he not hesitated in the first place. A quote later in Phantastes summarizes a better way to live:
“…All a man has to do, is to better what he can. And if he will settle it with himself, that even renown and success are in themselves of no great value, and be content to be defeated, if so be that the fault is not his; and so go to his work with a cool brain and a strong will, he will get it done; and fare none the worse in the end, that he was not burdened with provision and precaution.”
“But he will not always come off well,” I ventured to say.
“Perhaps not,” rejoined the knight, “in the individual act; but the result of his lifetime will content him.”
Opportunities to make things better are constantly presenting themselves in our daily lives. Either the reality of our acting for the good will transform us, or the theory of what might have been will haunt us. If we will seek out those opportunities, and consistently act on them, none of the occasional failures will matter. We will get to the end of our lives and find ourselves more whole, closer to what God intended us to be, and content with our choices and our lives.