"Every hand's a winner, and every hand's a loser" --Kenny Rogers
“To ignore the paradox is to miss the truth.” - Abraham Joshua Heschel, Israel: An Echo of Eternity
Years ago, I was teaching high school students about reasoning and logic.
I proposed an iron-clad, non-refute-able statement and dared them to pick it apart:
“The sky directly above us cannot be both completely sunny and completely cloudy at the same time and in the same sense.”
This group of students loved sporting at exceptions, errors, and contradictions….it kept them (and me!) entertained in a strict Baptist school.
They could not prove an exception to the logic. I crafted the statement with a scalpel, with too many precise qualifiers: directly, completely, same time, same sense. Each attempt at a contradiction I swatted away with these “qualifiers”
But it was not they who had the error, it was I.
For how many moments in life can you add 4 absolute qualifiers? And, for those moments that exist, how long do they last?
What value does being skilled at recognizing such statements have for leading a quality life?
Look at the people I love, the times and things I consider the essence of life. Over 99 percent of them have two sides of the coin, two hands (on one hand, on the other hand), multiple perspectives and solutions, differing weights and measures of bushels of variables…and by the time I could consider all of those, the situation changes forcing a reconsideration.
We are sick with Plato’s virus. Plato taught that truth was the highest good, and he showed how truth is arrived at through his version of dialectic.
The dialectic method, in very base terms, said that you start with a statement, and hold out the opposite of that statement, with the presupposition that both statements cannot be true. So you must prove, by various logical rules that one is true, or the other is, or you must change the statement. Repeat until you have a purified statement that is true, that cannot be contradicted.
The sages of Israel knew differently. The poetic form of Paradox was absolutely necessary to capture the realities of life in a way that strict reasoning could never accomplish.
Understanding Paradox: Answer A Fool
Do not answer a fool according to his folly,or you yourself will be just like him. Answer a fool according to his folly,or he will be wise in his own eyes. --Proverbs 26:4-5
On the surface, the scribe has contradicted himself.
The Plato-way thinking would strive to prove one or the other true, or adjust (synthesize) to a better beginning statement which could then be tested for ultimate truth.
It is a flat, boring, mono-channel way of listening to the world.
The Hebrew way of thinking is stereo thinking. This paradoxical alignment, answer a fool/answer not a fool, describes reality by it’s very paradoxical, two channel nature. The contradiction, the two channels coming at us, is the reality, and helps us listen to the world in surround sound.
Imagine someone coming at you with ridiculous words. If you answer, do you have legitimate hope that it will achieve an excellent result? That you will somehow abate the foolishness happening? Or does it lead you further into a tangled web of back and forth, birthing more foolishness all along, making you a fool as well? Shouldn’t you rather keep quiet?
Do you not answer? If you do not, do you have legitimate hope that answering achieves any good result? Do you think that your silence will make them go away, or will they just continue to hang around prattling, banging here and there, leaving a wake of chaos, and never ceasing not to care, never ceasing to go home and sleep without thought to the fact that they’ve roamed around like a stray dog tearing into garbage and leaving it strewn on the sidewalk.
Shouldn’t you say something?
The deliciousness this paradox teaches, the actual picture it paints is you can’t win with a fool. The contradiction is the reality. Two stereoscopic thoughts coming at us from opposite ends of the room show us real life in fulness.
Having a fool come at you is a time to be present, wise, and not distracted. When he does, we must tune to the trick, to feel the storm force fools can suck others into, the fool vortex if you act. Fools are a quicksand. If you strain against, you will sink quicker. If you do nothing, you submerge by doing nothing.
In the modern tongue, you’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t when answering a fool.
Second, the paired proverbs teach us a time to answer a fool, and a time not to answer a fool, and to be wise is to know the difference. Diligent in our wisdom, and trusting Yahweh for divine leading in that moment, we can do the right thing at the right time. A timely answer or non-answer has grace and craftsmanship.
Three Ways Paradox Helps You Acquire Wisdom
First, use the power of paradox a training ground, a dojo within which to train and wrestle. Recognize, think about them. Pose them to your children and ask them what they think.
Use the power of paradox to train and open your eyes to a greater nuanced understanding of reality. The order goes something like this:
The paradox leads us into chaos. As we thrash about in the disorder, we gain experiential knowledge. As we come out of the experience, we have a new order to live in.
Second, use the power of paradox to anchor the newly found experience and order. Besides being a better form to capture reality, paradox is a better form to remember reality, and to passing it on.
If I said that the real wisdom in a battle to survive depends on lots of different factors, and who has the strategic advantage, and on any night one predator may defeat another…yeah, you’re asleep already.
But if I said this:
“At high tide the fish eat ants; at low tide the ants eat fish.” - Thai Proverb
It’s short. It’s memorable. It’s ironic. It’s picturesque. It’s sticky. You’ll remember it. Your kids will remember it.
They will see in a short, beautiful picture how the context of one element changing can swiftly reverse the outcome.
Third, use paradox to gain peace.
In our hyper-Platonic world, we think we have to figure everything out, master everything, have a reason for everything, be absolutely sure of everything. It’s a hard, anxious, and painful way to live.
Buddhists use koans for the same purpose, to loosen the mind and get the student to “let go” The most famous example of a koan:
“What is the sound of one hand clapping?”
The difference is that koans are nonsense, they never unlock a higher truth, they never emerge from chaos into a new order. They loosen the mind, but never put it back together.
Biblical wisdom, as paradox, knocks you off your feet, humbles you, and trains you to a new level of understanding. This verbal “school of hard knocks” brings the humility needed to arrive at submission to God, awe of the universe, and releases you from the Platonic drive to control everything.
A Few Biblical Paradoxes to Get You Started
One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. -Proverbs 11.24 ESV
Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be full of gravel. -Proverbs 20.17 ESV
With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone.-Proverbs 25.15 ESV
One who is full loathes honey, but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet. -Proverbs 27.7 ESV
One’s pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor. -Proverbs 29.23 ESV
The lizard you can take in your hands, yet it is in kings’ palaces. -Proverbs 30.28 ESV