Bush, Kant, Teresa and the Teletubbies

Luanda, somewhere in the year 2000. I’m watching the inauguration of president Bush. Still quite surprised with the democratic system of the United States, in which you can somehow become president without having the majority of the votes. Where some votes all of a sudden don’t count while others turn out to be so important that they have to be counted a few times again! Bush is just saying: “So help me God Almighty”, when Teresa, our lovely cleaning lady walks in. “Look” I say, “This is the new president of America!” “O”, is her reply. “Did the other one die?”

Königsbergen, somewhere in the 1770s. Immanuel Kant is walking his ‘Philosopher’s Walk’. Every day you will see him taking the same route. One of the smartest men who has ever lived, the first to come up with a complete system of thoughts about reality, God, perceptions and ethics. He lives a very strict and punctuated life. It keeps him focused on his work. He has already waisted too many years wining and dining. He can tell you everything about different cultures and places in the world, but hardly ever leaves his hometown. He knows all about what is right or wrong but is one of the lucky Germans who has never been involved in some horrible war. He has written a book on the ‘Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime’, but has never been married, rumours say never even kissed a girl.

Sometimes I’m a bit jealous with people who have it all figured out. They are the proud owners of a huge halo of certainty, know exactly what is right or wrong, true or false, beautiful or ugly. I have lots of respect for a person like Kant, who spent his entire life thinking everything through and coming up with wonderful explanations for the visible and invisible world and the existence of God. But I do wonder how much of his conclusions would have differed if he had actually been in the countries that he knew so much about, or had been married to a vicious woman. What if he had suffered from a mental illness? Or had taken his walks at 10 o’clock in the morning in stead of half past four in the afternoon? How much does the truth as we perceive it depend on the way we’ve been brought up, the people we’ve met and well, you know what I mean!

Perhaps Kant didn’t even want to test his theories in real. It can be very discomforting to discover that what you’ve always believed in turns out to be a scam. ‘Loosing your faith when you are old is like declaring bankruptcy over your life’, I heard somebody say after he had stepped out of a religious sect after 20 years. How did Teresa feel when she discovered that her idea of democracy was actually more that of a dictatorship? How do I respond when my system of values and beliefs threatens to be a house of cards? Do I start blowing, or try harder to let it all stand?

I prefer to huff and puff and blow the house down! There’s nothing better than being confronted with different realities, world views and faiths. It is in these experiences that I discover what stands strong. It is here when I feel closest to the things that I cannot explain and loved by God. And want to read a good book, pray a bit more and go search for more explanations.

I had to explain to Teresa that in a democratic country presidents do step down after four years if they are not re-elected. That the Teletubbies are real people in coloured suits. (And yes, the little one is probably a dwarf). That I had the opportunity to go to university for free but didn’t even finish it. That we don’t all drive BMW’s and Audis in The Netherlands. Teresa had to explain to me how she was able to raise her 5 children under really hard circumstances. How she managed to build up her life after loosing her parents in a dreadful civil war. Why the Angolans put all the most yucky parts of a cow in their national dish. How to be faithful to your friends, family and God, even if it costs you almost everything.

What if Kant had watched the Teletubbies, or had met Teresa? What if Bush….?