The Benefit of Cancer

 In the first Copernican Revolution, the scientific world-view began to triumph--the process is still continuing today. In the West, it is no longer possible for a rational person to believe literally in the bible, for instance, as the ultimate authority; the "facts" of the bible became, well, fictions. The conflict between religious dogma and science came to a head at the time of Galileo. As is well known, the Inquisition  forced hun to recant the scientifically proven view that it was the Earth that revolved around the sun and not vice versa. This was, however, a pyrrhic victory; religious dogmatism among the college-educated has been in retreat ever since.

What I call the second Copernican Revolution is a subjective one. Nearly everyone believes today that the Earth is not the center of the cosmos, but a mere speck in an immensely large cosmos which consists mostly of space. However, many still believe that the cosmos revolves, as it were, around them. The deep realization that this is not so, fatal to egotism, is a personal/impersonal experience called wisdom. Time and egotism eventually must go separate ways; this is called maturity, the greatest benefit of healthy aging. A young man who exhibits untrammeled egotism is one thing; an old person who still imagines himself to be a Napoleon is quite another.

Age is a tool that chisels down the great stone blob of egotism into almost nothing, a wise human being. Once the ego is put into proper perspective, the result is ecstasy, joy. 

I was already an old man when cancer struck; the transfusion of lifeblood from the Ego into the human being was already well on its way. Cancer, a form of approaching death, is now casting out the demons who are left. I am determined to see them all die before I do. This is the benefit of cancer, the title of this little essay.  Let us now turn to a brief discussion of the First and Second Copernican Revolution

The First Copernican Revolution--The Objective One

For over a thousand years, Earth was considered to be the center of the universe, around which all the stars, including the Sun, as well as all the planets revolved. The second-century Greek mathematician and astronomer. Ptolemy, formulated the theory that all heavenly bodies were fixed in afirmament and were eternally unchangeable. As the heavenly bodies rotated around the Earth, they produced the so-called music of the spheres. Ptolemy couldn't resolve the planets' rotations into perfect circles--he was convinced that God chose the mathematical perfection of circular orbits--he devised the theory of epicycles, little diversions the planets had to make in order to maintain their perfect circle-orbits.

This theory remained in effect into the early sixteenth century. True, Copernicus (1473-1542) wrote his famous De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, (On The Revolutions of Celestial Objects) years before, but it was published after his death--Copernicus refused to have it published during his lifetime, fearing the reaction ecclesiastical authorities would have. In this work, Copernicus proved that the heliocentric theory was correct and that the planets rotated in elliptical, not circular orbits. His work, which remained largely unknown, thus offered no challenge to the established Ptolemaic theories.

Then came Galileo (1564-1643). He used the newly invented telescope to discover the four largest moons of Jupiter. He noted that they appeared and disappeared as they rotated around Jupiter, proving that Jupiter was not fixed to a celestial sphere. This had revolutionary consequences.

Let us now turn to Brecht's wonderful play, Galileo. (I will quote from the English translation by Charles Laughton.) At the beginning of the third scene, the audience is confronted with the following words on a placard: June 10, 1610/Galileo Galilei abolishes heaven. The destruction of the Ptolemaic system was the beginning of a new paradigm. The cosmos no longer had human proportions; it was vast and seemingly completely indifferent to humanity. After Galileo has a student visualize the rotating moons of Jupiter, the following dialogue takes place:

Sagredo: Whee is God?

Galileo: Not there! Any more than He'd be here--if creatures from the moon came down to look for him.

Sagredo: Then where is Hee

Galileo: Within ourselves--or nowhere.

The universe, vast in all directions, has no place for Heaven. (In the Ptolemaic system, heaven fit nicely just above the rotating stars.)

Humanity's place in the cosmos was no longer central.

Later on, a cardinal laments the damage the new paradigm will  make to orthodoxy:

Is it conceivable that God would trust the most precious fruit of His labor to a minor frolicking star? Would He have sent His Son to such a place? How can there be people with such twisted minds that they believe what they are told by a slave of a multiplication table?

The biblical story of Joshua is quoted. Joshua requests that God make the moon and sun stand still in the heavens so hr could continue his battle against the Canaanites. God complies. How can the sun stand still in a heliocentric world? Either the bible is wrong as a source of literal truth--there are myriad examples--or scientific discoveries that contradict them are illusory. Guess which side won and continues to win, at least among the well educated.

Past giants such as Aquinas and Augustine were very gifted intellectuals, no doubt about that. But they lived at times well before the discovery of the scientific method, when one didn't have to sacrifice one's intellect  to believe religious dogma as fact. If they were alive today, I am almost sure they would be scientists.

The first Copernican revolution gave us the scientifically corroborated paradigm that the universe is unbelievably vast and indifferent to our needs.

When the scientist La Place was asked by Napoleon as to what place God occupied in his system, re replied, "I have had no need, Sire, of that hypothesis." Today, centuries after the Copernican revolution began, most scientists would agree.

The Second Copernican Revolution--The Subjective One

In a recent article of the New York Times, Gail Collins wrote the following, in reaction to new photos from the James Webb Space Telescope:

Such a jaw-dropping reminder that as self-obsessed as we tend to get, we're hardly the center of the universe.

This is an intellectual insight; most adults come to this conclusion when confronted by the size of the universe. But intellectual insights often don't last, and even when they do, they don't necessarily change behavior. One needs an emotional awareness that one is not the center of the universe. This emotional awareness tends to come with age or, in the case of younger adults, in the last stages of serious illness. A certain amount of self-centeredness is necessary if a young person wants to 'establish himself' in this very competitive world. 

It is relatively easy for a young person to believe in the illusion of self; this becomes much more difficult as one ages. A heathy young person  assumes a significant degree of self-importance; it becomes increasingly difficult for an older person to believe in an inner diamond while choking to death in his own private and increasingly toxic mine. If all works well,  the older person realizes, eomotinally and intellectually, that what is importan in life is not fame, money or even success, but relationships.

As an old man, an emotional awareness that I was not central to anything was already well underway. Contracting cancer has accelerated this process. How can one continue to be vain as death approaches? As we shall see, some persons manage to do just that; this however, is a sign of pathology. A certain degree of self-centeredness is expected among the young; if it persists into old age, it is tragic. I invite the reader to contrast the examples of Jimmy Carter, an avatar of healthy aging, and that of Trump, whose pathological narcissism has shown no sign of abating in his eighth decade of life. 

Egotism can be transcended in only two ways. The first is the emotional realization that everything is connected. An understanding of the universe fosters this perspective. The second way to transcend the ego is though relationships, especially selfless love.  The latter should keep us happily busy until the moment of death.

Once one accepts death, another foundation of wisdom, the vastness of the universe is no longer frightening. The cosmos then becomes a great source of beauty. 

Gaining perspective, the realization and the practice of love and wisdom, is the potential benefit of cancer, the potential benefit of age, the benefit of a full life  despite the difficulties of the aging process; these cannot but help increase one's joy. 

Gaining perspective includes a deep appreciation of the gift of life. Love and wisdom are what make us human; love and wisdom never die.

Too bad that agape tends to be directly proportional to arthritis! Life is amazing nevertheless--Insight; this is why this old man smiles.