From Dr. Thurow:
Amidst this hot weather I was thinking recently about how often we take the mere awareness of something better for the presence of a positive evil. “I hate the heat”, I declare, but if I could have a 96 degree day in Phoenix at this time of year I would consider it a blessing. It is not the present thing, but my own awareness of something that seems better that makes me discontent. But this is true of the whole of this world, perhaps. We are not made for this world, but for the perfection of our Father’s house. The world is just as it should be, but we do not fit.
There is not a thing in this world, save perhaps the Holy Eucharist, that we could not justly complain of for its imperfection, but that does not make the world wrong, it is just not that perfection of good made for us. It is not ultimately right for us. Yet everything in this world reminds us of that perfection we yearn for and somehow know without ever having experienced, even if only by its tantalizing absence. As St. Augustine so beautifully points out, the beauty of the world is precisely in its imperfection; that it always says to us, “I am not God. Look higher.”
So, I will try to be philosophic about any heat we might experience at our upcoming Chesterton family picnic (and house sorting!), thanking the world for the reminder of my proper place. Now, if it rains on us…
July 29, 2025