Putting A Dent In The Universe (A Meditation On The Vanity Of Life)

We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why else even be here?

STEVE JOBS

This is a famous quotation from Steve Jobs. Like many famous quotations, it gets taken out of context. The "dent in the universe" is deliberate hyperbole on Jobs's part, and the "here" was Apple Computers. Without a doubt, Steve Jobs put a dent in the universe of tech. I can debate if that dent was a good thing or a bad thing, but that is the subject for some other post. (I despise Apple and its products.)

For many more people, the Steve Jobs quotation is deeper and more philosophical. It amounts to a mission statement for life and a call to do great and glorious things. I felt that call when I turned 18 and graduated from high school. I read some Nietzche and decided that I needed to put my own dent in the universe. But God had other plans for me. He torpedoed my ambitions with the Book of Ecclesiastes from the Bible and the declaration that all is vanity:

Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes vanity of vanities, and all is vanity. What hath a man more of all his labour, that he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth standeth for ever. The sun riseth, and goeth down, and returneth to his place: and there rising again,

Maketh his round by the south, and turneth again to the north: the spirit goeth forward surveying all places round about, and returneth to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea doth not overflow: unto the place from whence the rivers come, they return, to flow again. All things are hard: man cannot explain them by word. The eye is not filled with seeing, neither is the ear filled with hearing. What is it that hath been? the same thing that shall be. What is it that hath been done? the same that shall be done. Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say: Behold this is new: for it hath already gone before in the ages that were before us.

There is no remembrance of former things: nor indeed of those things which hereafter are to come, shall there be any remembrance with them that shall be in the latter end.

 

 ECCLESIASTES 1:2-11 DOUAY-RHEIMS

When I read that book, I knew the words to be true. They deflated me with my dreams and ambitions. Taken out of the context of the Bible, Ecclesiastes will drive you to despair. You didn't need to be a Christian to agree with the Holy Bible on this matter. Even an atheist like Shelley knew it to be true:

Ozymandias 

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

 

I met a traveller from an antique land 

Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

That poem shows what Ecclesiastes was preaching. Ozymandias put his dent in the universe, and the universe laughed at him. The simple fact is that your life and your projects amount to nothing in the whole scheme of things.

The proper goal and purpose of life is to become a saint. Your greatness is relative to the greatness of Almighty God. Knowing and accepting this requires humility. This was a trait lacking in both Ozymandias and Steve Jobs.

People with humility and a love for God tend to live quiet lives. People filled with pride and vanity live loud lives. That is how you can always tell the proud. They are loud. They want to be noticed, respected, and remembered by the world. The proud want to be somebodies in a world of nobodies.

The best path to take in this life is the devout life. This is the final admonition from Ecclesiastes 12:13 to "fear God and keep His commandments." The devout life is simply following the dictum of Saint Benedict to pray and work. Be humble. Do penance. Say your prayers. Do your work. The world will forget you. God will never forget you.