March 19, 2008
If you immediately know candlelight is fire, then the meal was cooked long ago.
One thing that people do very often is stare right into the face of truth and ignore it. They let their preconceived notions and assumptions inhibit their ability to think for themselves, to learn. My roommate, for example, believes very strongly that evolution (just a “theory”) is a hoax, that God put the dinosaurs in the earth for us to find. Obviously, he doesn’t understand what a scientific theory entails. But his religious beliefs and other preconceived ideas keep him from accepting the fact that science has proven thousands of times that evolution works.
My parents believe that I’m wasting my time with theatre. Every time I call my grandmother, she says something along the lines of “Maybe you should try getting a real job.” My family has made this assumption that theatre is all fun and games, that it involves no actual work and focus and meaningful activity. A lawyer friend of mine derided the American public for grieving for Heath Ledger’s untimely death by saying “You guys are a bunch of idiots. You never knew the guy. Even the guy you think you knew, you didn’t know. He made a living pretending to be something else.” Yes, that’s what actors do, but there is more to it than simply pretending.
Theatre is a very hard industry to make a living in, I’ll grant you that. But people like Scott Walters and others are trying to come up with ways to help theatre artists make living wages while still producing their art. They’re challenging the base assumptions behind the status quo.
One of my favorite shows is Stargate SG-1. In that show’s first season, Daniel Jackson encounters an Ancient, an being who as ascended to a higher plane of existence (think the Buddhists’ Nirvana). Oma Desala, as the character is called, speaks in riddles to Daniel Jackson. One thing she says is “If you immediately know candlelight is fire, then the meal was cooked long ago.” Daniel has no idea what it means.
Ten seasons later, I think I’ve figured it out. If you immediately know candlelight is fire (i.e. without thinking about it), then the meal was cooked long ago (i.e. you had already decided the truth). If you immediately know evolution is false, without looking at the facts or thinking about it, then you’ve closed your mind to any alternatives. In this case, you’ve closed your mind to the truth.
If you immediately know theatre is a waste of time, then you’ve already decided theatre artists are lazy people, no better than beggars and hobos.
Don’t be my parents.
Open your eyes to the truth.
Explore the possibilities.
12 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Great post. I would also give you this challenge: If you immediately know evolution is true, then you’ve closed your mind to any alternatives.
We broaden our understanding through open dialogue. I’d like to recommend a very, very powerful book: “Non-Violent Communication” by Marshall B. Rosenberg. Read it, try to really understand the techniques, and then have a real conversation with your parents. Try to understand what lies beneath what they are saying — you may be surprised what it is.
Comment by Scott Walters — March 19, 2008 @ 6:17 am
Thanks, Scott, for the great comment. It means a lot to me that you offer such good advice on my blog.
As for your challenge, I’ve always felt that there are merits to both sides of the debate. I don’t feel evolution and creationism are mutually exclusive. I feel that there are things that science can’t answer, and therefore I feel that it is perfectly acceptable to put faith in a higher power. I also accept that some people don’t feel the need to put faith in a higher power.
Oma Desala also says, “Many roads lead to the great path. Only the willing find their way.”
Comment by director — March 19, 2008 @ 8:00 am
Be yourself. There is no higher aspiration. Do not even cloud your mind with the idea that you, right now, know what the truth of yoruself is. Give yourself whole-heartedly to the truth of your SELF (whatever that might be), and that will be enough.
What one life can say they accomplished this?
How important would such a life be.
Comment by Dominic — April 12, 2008 @ 9:23 pm
[...] I just checked and my post “If you immediately know candlelight is fire, then the meal was cooekd long ago” post is the #1 hit on Google for that phrase. Go me! Don’t believe me? Check it out for [...]
Pingback by DirectorSector Fame — or lack thereof | The Director Sector — June 28, 2008 @ 2:51 pm
How can I not love a fellow director who can quote Stargate SG1? I must nitpick and say that Daniel meets Oma in season 3, not season 1.
I’ve always loved that quote. I’ve looked at is more as that our perceptions take a long time to catch up with underlying truth. But your interpretation works too.
Comment by MK — June 28, 2008 @ 4:53 pm
[...] always loved Stargate SG-1, as you can see from my post on one of the phrases earlier, “If you immediately know candlelight is fire, then the meal was cooked long ago.” From day one, when SG-1 was on HBO, I saw General Hammond make the toughest decisions a person can [...]
Pingback by Don S. Davis, of Stargate fame, dies at 65 | The Director Sector — July 1, 2008 @ 11:21 am
Actually it was the monk that says that to Daniel, not Oma. He comes face to face with her for the first time later that episode.
Nice post though (found through being one of the top links on Google for that phrase) =D
Comment by Tester — August 1, 2008 @ 6:01 am
Oma Desala says it too, when Daniel suffers severe radiation poisoning in season 5, episode 21 “Meridian”. She helps him ascend.
Comment by Mathias — October 2, 2008 @ 10:53 am
That’s actually a pretty good interpretation of the SG-1 quote. It also really fits with the whole Ascension theme.
Comment by Justin — November 17, 2008 @ 8:43 pm
Hey Man,
After reading your post at first I had the same reaction as the first guy that replied - if you immediately belief in evolution then you’re also closing your mind to other possibilities. I thought I had you pinned as one of “those guys” who call everyone else closed-minded when they in fact are the bigot, but after having read your responses I happily admit my error. In fact, as a recent graduate with a B.S. in Biology I have to agree with you; evolutionism and creationism aren’t mutually exclusive. I guess the point I wanted to throw out there is that you hit on something that is (IMHO) a big problem these days - people think that science and religion are polar opposites and that you have to choose a side. I say rather that the two actually complement each other. A shocking statement in today’s world I know, but just something to chew on.
BTW - I love the quote interpretation…my buddies and I have spent many a night talkin about that one, lol. Good luck w/t he theatre man.
Comment by Mike — December 27, 2008 @ 8:40 pm
Sorry for coming in two years late, but I have a problem with, “If you immediately know evolution is true, then you’ve closed your mind to any alternatives.”
We didn’t immediately know evolution was true. It took a lot of hard work from many people for over a hundred years and still today it is worked upon, constantly gathering evidence - none of which has contradicted the theory in the slightest. Furthermore, we’re not born with this knowledge. It takes a few years in science classes for us to grasp the basics of these things. So we don’t immediately know it to be true. We came to the truth slowly, but surely.
I don’t consider it closed minded to disregard ancient texts which do not have a shred of supporting evidence. I don’t consider it closed minded to accept a well established and observable fact backed by everything from fossils to DNA and any other evidence we’ve found. If you can provide enough evidence to show that your god exists, fine. I’m open to that, I’m willing to listen. But in the meantime, don’t call me closed minded for basing my beliefs upon hard evidence and reason, especially when the very thing that causes you to deny it is faith: keeping your mind closed to evidence in order to support an unproven myth.
Comment by Richard — July 21, 2010 @ 9:30 pm
You’re right, but you actually just made my point.
For instance, we know immediately that the world revolves around the sun — we don’t have to think about that anymore. But a thousand years ago, everyone immediately knew that the sun revolved around the Earth. It took hundreds of years for the people of the world to be convinced otherwise. The evidence was clear, but it took awhile to change their minds. Why? Because they already knew the sun revolved around the Earth — how could it be any different?
Achieving new knowledge is a learning process, and usually a slow one. But consider this: today, you know evolution to be true. You don’t have to do a ton of research. You’ve already learned and decided that evolution is true. It takes you less than a second to look at a flame to know that is fire. You don’t have to think about it anymore, just the way you don’t have to think twice about whether your dog is a dog, your car is a car, or your toe is a toe. In other words, you’ve made up your mind about what those things are [i]long ago[/i].
It’s not so much that you’re closed-minded for knowing that evolution is true immediately (it’s just an example, after all), but the fact that you accept evolution as true unequivocally (just as you accept that flame is fire unequivocally) means that it’s that much harder to convince you that something else is true if it flies in the face of, shall we say, conventional wisdom.
Comment by admin — July 22, 2010 @ 5:34 am