The Rock

One of my daughters is taking a college course and had to write a paper on “The Stranger” by Camus.  I have been discussing it with her.  The main premise of the book is the meaninglessness of life.  This is tied to the main character’s atheism.  Whether or not one can find meaning in life without God is a topic that appears in many books on both atheism and theism.  As a teenager, I might well have committed suicide out of intellectual despair, if I had not believed that there was a God who had a plan for my life.  If there is no God and no plan, then why bother?  In any event, it reminded me of a poem I wrote nearly 40 years ago.

Sifting, drifting, so elusive,

Time runs through my hands.

Ever-changing, mist and cloudlike,

All my grandest plans.

Let me catch you, flitting, floating,

Butterfly of dreams.

Grasping, clasping, cannot hold you.

Life is only sunbeams.

Panting, puffing, running after,

Cannot catch my youth.

Puzzle, ponder and still wonder,

Where and what is truth?

Is there meaning?  Are there answers?

A key to fit the lock?

Tell me, is there something solid?

Is God Himself the Rock?