THAT WHICH CANNOT BE MEASURED CAN BE WORTHWHILE

THAT WHICH CANNOT BE MEASURED CAN BE WORTHWHILE

American culture is all about stuff.

Call us materialistic and you’d be right.

Most people living in the U.S. of A. spend a lot of time, not to mention money, on things, on fun, on goodies. Life is about stuff that can be measured, whether in length, weight, volume, temperature, or time. If those things are marked with a swoosh or some other fashionable trademark, so much the better. Some young guys have been known to be slaughtered for their Air Jordans. Lovely young matrons measure their success by the Vuitton bags they sling over their shoulders. Guys and dolls must wear the latest jeans, even if that means buying ones with worn knees.

Agree or disagree, many would have other examples.

Unfortunately, whether the latest cellphone, pad or appliance with ear-plugs or vintage wine or car is the object to be coveted, it may not be made in America by Americans. But that is another lament.

There is a flip-side to culture, any culture. That is about reality that cannot be measured. A question of what cannot be measured when posed to a search engine brought some interesting yet somehow materialistic answers: love, laughing with friends, walking the dog, helping others. Good, yes, but not ethereal, not spiritual, except for love. And love can be several things, thus different words in other languages normally unused in English.

These non-material things are essential. Politicians rarely deal with them. Just ordinary folks appreciate them. Naming them in bunches isn’t done very often, save perhaps by religious people. Leaving religion aside – for the time being – among those valued by most people might be these, in no particular order or worthiness.

Courage, wisdom, courtesy, humor, mathematics,philosophy, insight, generosity, patriotism, agility, health.

Such a list could go on and on. So might the listing of their opposites, also non-material: Desirable versus undesirable. Good versus bad. Virtue versus evil.

Instances of meaningful opposing ideas -- tangible-intangible, concrete-abstract, material-spiritual – are numberless. We run across them every day. Some have major consequences. A recent example.

A Supreme Court justice recently made an abstract judgment that could change the American culture in ways that now can only be guessed. He decided, along with four others concurring, that the Congress of the United States in 1996 displayed animus and bigotry in confirming by law an institution accepted in time beyond memory, namely marriage between one man and one woman.

Tolerance is another immeasurable. It works both ways. It means respect for other’s beliefs. Respect and belief, two more abstractions. So it must be difficult to tolerate something that is bad or has no long-lasting benefits for society, although the doer can be tolerated. But, something that is good ordinarily is not the subject of tolerance. Animus and bigotry are abstracts that more often than not are aimed at things that are unacceptable to society. But, obviously, in the Supreme Court’s opinion even something for eons considered good can be wiped from federal law because its supporters can considered something worse than intolerant.

Things that cannot be measured are important. Most important. Fundamentally important.

Morality is one of those fundamentals of human relations.

So many “pleasures” (another intangible) of this life can be moral and, when misused, immoral. Correct, use and misuse involve the immeasurable. Morality springs from religion, which also is in its essence spiritual and which cannot be measured. God and morality go together.

God cannot be measured, but he made all that can and cannot be measured. He is wise. He is wisdom.