Whenever we make a big decision, it is wise to do so from a broad perspective. Before proposing marriage or taking a new job, before deciding on the purchase of a house or a car, one should seek the opinions of others and make sure to take sufficient time. A broader perspective than self-interest and the fleeting moment can safeguard us from making bad choices. What we choose out of self-interest is often contrary to what is good for us. What we sow in haste we often reap in regret.
The Desiderata (things we desire), the creation of Max Ehrmann, who labored in relative obscurity during his lifetime, offers us a broad perspective in which we can more accurately weigh the important things in life. Written in 1927, it represents that rare and felicitous combination of inspirational poetry, illuminating philosophy, and widespread popularity.
Nimoy reads the Desiderata
Presidential hopeful, Adlai Stevenson helped to bring The Desiderata to the attention of the public in 1965 when it was learned that he had planned to use it in his Christmas cards. It became an immensely popular poster and was celebrated in songs, magazines, and in motion pictures. Joan Crawford recited it on television. Leonard Nimoy, of Star Trek fame, recorded it on his 1968 album, Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy, and again on the 1995 re-release of Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock’s Music From Outer Space. Morgan Freeman, in a 2012 interview on Oprah Winfrey’s Master Class Television Special, expressed how deeply The Desiderata shaped his life.
What are the “things we desire? First of all, as the first line of the poem indicates, it is peace: “Go placidly amid the noise and haste”. But how do we attain peace? Essentially, the poem advises us to look at our life in the context of the unfolding universe. Here, the author is borrowing from the 17th century philosopher, Benedict Spinoza, who taught that we could calm our spirit if we looked at things from the perspective of eternity (sub specie aeternitatis). In other words, by taking the long view of things, locating ourselves in the vast scheme of events, our momentary problems seem to be utterly unimportant. This philosophy seemed to benefit Spinoza. Even his enemies regard him as a “saintly man”.
This larger perspective also helps us to find love, which, despite one’s experience of “aridity and disenchantment” is “as perennial as grass”. By maintaining “peace with God” and with our soul, we place ourselves on the road to happiness. As we locate ourselves in the context of an unfolding universe, we begin to see ourselves as its children, and our troubles begin to fade away. Perhaps the most characteristic stanza of The Desiderata is the third to the last:
You are a child of the universe.
No less than the trees and the stars
You have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
No doubt the universe is unfolding
As it should.
It is most interesting to note that many who treasured The Desiderata missed its implications for the right of the unborn child to “be here”. When Canada’s government lost its majority in the federal election of 1972, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau reassured the nation that “The universe is unfolding as it should”. It is supremely ironic that it was Trudeau who introduced abortion legislation, asserting that thousands of unborn babies do not have a right to be here.”
Surely, if “the trees and the stars” have a right to be here, that same right should be extended to unborn human beings. For Ehrmann, not only are we children of parents, but, in the context of an unfolding universe, we are the offspring of all our previous parents in that long line that goes back to our primordial ancestors. When we think that the merging of just one of millions or spermatozoa with just one of thousands of eggs were needed to produce our unique selfhood, it seems improbable that we should be here exactly as we are. Then, when we multiply this improbability by all our preceding ancestors, it becomes, when we try to think of it, a mental preoccupation that, in the words of John Keats, “dost tease us out of thought as doth eternity”. We find ourselves outside the limits of comprehension, though at the same time, filled with awe at a phenomenon that transcends our capacity for understanding. The universe has been the patient parent that has led, over millennia, through one stupendous improbability after another, to the appearance of a particular unborn child. Yet, in the narrow perspective of convenience and the pressure of the moment, it is denied its right to be here and is rejected.
Abortion, it would seem, means that the universe is not unfolding as it should. What is the moral significance of being a part of this evolving universe? For Ehrmann, it is appreciation and acceptance of what time and nature have brought into being. “Take kindly the counsel of the years” suggests that we learn from the past, from history, from the way eternity expresses itself from one epoch to another.
We are, indeed, children of the universe. In this larger perspective, we learn something about the Wisdom of God and the foolishness of man. The Desiderata should be granted a revival for a world that is immersed in the moment and lost for lack of vision.