good evening everyone and thank you to
the team that organized this event when
I was at that Institute in in India
starting there about 10 years ago I
received a letter from a very young
friend Candida was her name and as they
was because she died inexplicably a few
years ago and didn’t know that I used
her story to convey a message about
meaning tan Vega was an altar server in
the parish that I served I am a Catholic
priest with postgraduate qualifications
in physics and philosophy faith science
rationality make me who I am and
contribute to what I’m going to say in
non contradictory ways today I wrote
this letter and in the letter she gave
me all the news about the people of the
place news about the place and then she
ended her letter with these words she
said this is my message for you when you
see a butterfly
it is me checking to see if you are okay
after that letter began to notice
butterflies they were all over all
colors designs shapes dancing from
flower to flower and whenever I saw them
they would they would leave a smile on
my face as I felt the warmth and
affection coming from miles away
sometimes I would just stop in silent
wonder staring at the bushes now the
students at the college I was at
sometimes caught me just standing and
looking at the bushes and they would say
father what are you looking at and I
would say just the butterflies but I
wasn’t looking just at butterflies the
butterflies had a new significance for
me and they for a deeper truth and after
that experience
I began to think about the words I
listen to the words that have helped
they construct the way I look at the
world and construct meaning what I want
to talk to you about is about these
words it’s not about the butterflies
many people who listen to the story in
different contexts I lift with some
romantic image about the butterflies and
they happy to stay there but I want to
tell you about language constructing and
influencing the way you look at the
world language is our greatest
technology that’s the T in Ted
but let’s not dismiss the butterflies
too quickly heads
tand agar said if you see a fly or a
mosquito I probably wouldn’t be using
the story you see the symbols are
important too because the symbols
participate in a reality they may
present and very often that reality is
is not visible and it’s that reality
that I’m talking about I’m often going
to throw our Christians to do to you
that I’m not going to answer what are
your central symbols what are symbols
that you latch onto that help you
construct hopefully some ultimate
meaning meaning needs to be put into
perspective and you’ve heard that I
teach a module at our institutes and
Joseph’s at Sidora called philosophy of
nature and in this module I introduce
students to the physical theories about
the universe the Big Bang Theory etc and
I take great joy in showing them a
series of slides I received by email a
few years ago I don’t know the author of
these slides and three weeks ago I
received
subversion so maybe you have seen a to
the slides show the earth from a
geometrically increasing distance by a
factor of 10 from 1 meter 10 meters 100
meters at kilometer 10 kilometers and so
on when the distance gets to a trillion
kilometers the Sun is seen to be just
one star among thousands of other stars
in our Milky Way at a light year away
which is the next factor up the solar
system is just a speck at ten years at
ten light years away the solar system is
not visible on that scale and without
fail in my class there’s always some
restlessness at that point sometimes a
shifting in the seas and sometimes even
some uncomfortable laughter as the
students grasp this unfathomable reality
of our place in this vast cosmos human
life is insignificant apparently and
possibly probably not unique the earth
is insignificant and possibly not unique
and the series of slides continues for a
few more factors of ten and then it ends
with a very provocative question are you
the center of the universe makes you
think doesn’t it just what is your place
does your universe extend beyond your
skull beyond your ego now let’s zoom
right back to your place you sitting in
this auditorium how do you construct
your meaning in this vastness of the
cosmos that we’re in or even just in the
political system that you were in in
this part of Africa
when I finished school I went to
university and I pursued studies in
physics and I couldn’t imagine how
anybody else could be studying anything
else and understanding the vast cosmos
and and it stretches understanding
nature in its minutest hunting levels
was everything for me and I had this
this almost mystical sense that
everything was connected and explicable
through all these theories I did not see
that any of the other faculties could be
true intellectual pursuits but then I
began to realize that studying the
physical theories of the universe did
not help me negotiate my emotions did
not help me create better interpersonal
relationships do not inspire me for for
action towards social cohesion do not
motivate me for a stand against
apartheid was in the 80s
unless of course I wanted to develop
certain kinds of military hardware when
I made these realizations I began to to
pursue other other other fields of study
I realized that just understanding the
physical world was flat there’s no
height a depth of meaning just insects
with colorful wings so back to the
bottle flowers what happened in that
story about the butterflies what
happened in my mind that is the words of
my friend Dave helped me to give you
significance to to the butterflies what
happened I think I took those words and
created new associations in my mind
I’ve had other words other
concepts other beliefs emotions
prejudices and they formed a network or
a net and I used this net to catch the
world I could say that I constructed
reality I could say that I constructed
my meaning I could say that I used the
network as verticals by which I looked
at the world and that’s the question I’m
throwing out to you is how are you
constructing designing a deal in Ted
your world your meaning what words are
you taking in we do that all the time
just think about how a piece of gossip
changes the way you look at another
person because you’ve constructed this
network for which you’re looking at the
world we’ve just heard stories about
racism and immigration we do that for
our sub networks about race about the
politics in our country about religion
and terrorism they all just networks for
which we are having certain perspective
I want to ask how what what do I need to
listen to what do you need to listen to
to get to some ultimate meaning there
are so many words out there we are
bombarded from the time we get up to the
time we go to bed but social media with
the television with our radios if
there’s a never-ending stream of words
and when we see there’s even more words
churning and trying to work out
everything we’ve heard there’s what that
means with apparently good sayings
Facebook posts with personal commitments
tweets with with short sales much like
my butterflies
depending who you following how do you
listen what should we be listening to
you in this but as the cosmos really
speaking to us and that brings me to my
final point and it comes again with
another anecdote which and if there’s no
meaning in what I’m saying at least the
anecdotes are entertaining the Ian Ted I
did some of my studies for the
priesthood in Rome and when we got there
the first group of us together in that
first week had no common language and we
are too trying to learn Italian the
speakers we could say we could speak to
each other and our fermitas
knew felt the tension in this group and
decided to take us out for a trip on the
trains in Rome and as we stood at the
platform the dingdong of the PA system
sounded and we all went very silent we
were hoping to be the first to catch
some italian word in that announcement
and after about 45 seconds we all just
burst out laughing that was the only
language we had in common
and we shouted una parola they couldn’t
make a full sentence in Italian bin but
what we were saying is the entire
announcement sounded like one world did
you have that experience distinctly of
foreign language what I learned then is
that when you’re learning a language you
learn to put the spaces between the
words you learn to be attentive to the
spaces because every word begins in
silence and ends in silence and when you
grasp the silence then you can graphs
the word and its meaning see listening
and – – – meaning require silence and
that’s my story three elements for the
construction of meaning symbol that
participates in a reality and makes that
reality present that’s not visible word
as as Theory enhancing and meaning
investing that determines how you see
the world and silence that you can hear
more profoundly and see more deeply and
hopefully rightly I am a person of faith
of Christian faith and a Catholic priest
and these three symbol word and silence
converge for me in one in my encounter
with Christ
that’s a story for another context thank
you
[Applause]
[Music]
the team that organized this event when
I was at that Institute in in India
starting there about 10 years ago I
received a letter from a very young
friend Candida was her name and as they
was because she died inexplicably a few
years ago and didn’t know that I used
her story to convey a message about
meaning tan Vega was an altar server in
the parish that I served I am a Catholic
priest with postgraduate qualifications
in physics and philosophy faith science
rationality make me who I am and
contribute to what I’m going to say in
non contradictory ways today I wrote
this letter and in the letter she gave
me all the news about the people of the
place news about the place and then she
ended her letter with these words she
said this is my message for you when you
see a butterfly
it is me checking to see if you are okay
after that letter began to notice
butterflies they were all over all
colors designs shapes dancing from
flower to flower and whenever I saw them
they would they would leave a smile on
my face as I felt the warmth and
affection coming from miles away
sometimes I would just stop in silent
wonder staring at the bushes now the
students at the college I was at
sometimes caught me just standing and
looking at the bushes and they would say
father what are you looking at and I
would say just the butterflies but I
wasn’t looking just at butterflies the
butterflies had a new significance for
me and they for a deeper truth and after
that experience
I began to think about the words I
listen to the words that have helped
they construct the way I look at the
world and construct meaning what I want
to talk to you about is about these
words it’s not about the butterflies
many people who listen to the story in
different contexts I lift with some
romantic image about the butterflies and
they happy to stay there but I want to
tell you about language constructing and
influencing the way you look at the
world language is our greatest
technology that’s the T in Ted
but let’s not dismiss the butterflies
too quickly heads
tand agar said if you see a fly or a
mosquito I probably wouldn’t be using
the story you see the symbols are
important too because the symbols
participate in a reality they may
present and very often that reality is
is not visible and it’s that reality
that I’m talking about I’m often going
to throw our Christians to do to you
that I’m not going to answer what are
your central symbols what are symbols
that you latch onto that help you
construct hopefully some ultimate
meaning meaning needs to be put into
perspective and you’ve heard that I
teach a module at our institutes and
Joseph’s at Sidora called philosophy of
nature and in this module I introduce
students to the physical theories about
the universe the Big Bang Theory etc and
I take great joy in showing them a
series of slides I received by email a
few years ago I don’t know the author of
these slides and three weeks ago I
received
subversion so maybe you have seen a to
the slides show the earth from a
geometrically increasing distance by a
factor of 10 from 1 meter 10 meters 100
meters at kilometer 10 kilometers and so
on when the distance gets to a trillion
kilometers the Sun is seen to be just
one star among thousands of other stars
in our Milky Way at a light year away
which is the next factor up the solar
system is just a speck at ten years at
ten light years away the solar system is
not visible on that scale and without
fail in my class there’s always some
restlessness at that point sometimes a
shifting in the seas and sometimes even
some uncomfortable laughter as the
students grasp this unfathomable reality
of our place in this vast cosmos human
life is insignificant apparently and
possibly probably not unique the earth
is insignificant and possibly not unique
and the series of slides continues for a
few more factors of ten and then it ends
with a very provocative question are you
the center of the universe makes you
think doesn’t it just what is your place
does your universe extend beyond your
skull beyond your ego now let’s zoom
right back to your place you sitting in
this auditorium how do you construct
your meaning in this vastness of the
cosmos that we’re in or even just in the
political system that you were in in
this part of Africa
when I finished school I went to
university and I pursued studies in
physics and I couldn’t imagine how
anybody else could be studying anything
else and understanding the vast cosmos
and and it stretches understanding
nature in its minutest hunting levels
was everything for me and I had this
this almost mystical sense that
everything was connected and explicable
through all these theories I did not see
that any of the other faculties could be
true intellectual pursuits but then I
began to realize that studying the
physical theories of the universe did
not help me negotiate my emotions did
not help me create better interpersonal
relationships do not inspire me for for
action towards social cohesion do not
motivate me for a stand against
apartheid was in the 80s
unless of course I wanted to develop
certain kinds of military hardware when
I made these realizations I began to to
pursue other other other fields of study
I realized that just understanding the
physical world was flat there’s no
height a depth of meaning just insects
with colorful wings so back to the
bottle flowers what happened in that
story about the butterflies what
happened in my mind that is the words of
my friend Dave helped me to give you
significance to to the butterflies what
happened I think I took those words and
created new associations in my mind
I’ve had other words other
concepts other beliefs emotions
prejudices and they formed a network or
a net and I used this net to catch the
world I could say that I constructed
reality I could say that I constructed
my meaning I could say that I used the
network as verticals by which I looked
at the world and that’s the question I’m
throwing out to you is how are you
constructing designing a deal in Ted
your world your meaning what words are
you taking in we do that all the time
just think about how a piece of gossip
changes the way you look at another
person because you’ve constructed this
network for which you’re looking at the
world we’ve just heard stories about
racism and immigration we do that for
our sub networks about race about the
politics in our country about religion
and terrorism they all just networks for
which we are having certain perspective
I want to ask how what what do I need to
listen to what do you need to listen to
to get to some ultimate meaning there
are so many words out there we are
bombarded from the time we get up to the
time we go to bed but social media with
the television with our radios if
there’s a never-ending stream of words
and when we see there’s even more words
churning and trying to work out
everything we’ve heard there’s what that
means with apparently good sayings
Facebook posts with personal commitments
tweets with with short sales much like
my butterflies
depending who you following how do you
listen what should we be listening to
you in this but as the cosmos really
speaking to us and that brings me to my
final point and it comes again with
another anecdote which and if there’s no
meaning in what I’m saying at least the
anecdotes are entertaining the Ian Ted I
did some of my studies for the
priesthood in Rome and when we got there
the first group of us together in that
first week had no common language and we
are too trying to learn Italian the
speakers we could say we could speak to
each other and our fermitas
knew felt the tension in this group and
decided to take us out for a trip on the
trains in Rome and as we stood at the
platform the dingdong of the PA system
sounded and we all went very silent we
were hoping to be the first to catch
some italian word in that announcement
and after about 45 seconds we all just
burst out laughing that was the only
language we had in common
and we shouted una parola they couldn’t
make a full sentence in Italian bin but
what we were saying is the entire
announcement sounded like one world did
you have that experience distinctly of
foreign language what I learned then is
that when you’re learning a language you
learn to put the spaces between the
words you learn to be attentive to the
spaces because every word begins in
silence and ends in silence and when you
grasp the silence then you can graphs
the word and its meaning see listening
and – – – meaning require silence and
that’s my story three elements for the
construction of meaning symbol that
participates in a reality and makes that
reality present that’s not visible word
as as Theory enhancing and meaning
investing that determines how you see
the world and silence that you can hear
more profoundly and see more deeply and
hopefully rightly I am a person of faith
of Christian faith and a Catholic priest
and these three symbol word and silence
converge for me in one in my encounter
with Christ
that’s a story for another context thank
you
[Applause]
[Music]
Please follow and like us: