created: October 23, 2026
modified: October 23, 2026
The tension between the finite and the infinite is probably the most consequential source of open consideration in my life.
Most significantly, it's relevant to the question of why we even exist or perceive. We are constrained to experiencing passing finite moments, but pure cohesive truth intuitively exists beyond what is arbitrary. And finite moments intuitively are inherently arbitrary.
Matthew 6: Do Not Worry
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
I think about this passage a lot. Soren Kierkegaard wrote about it at length as well. I think it might make sense to internalize both the primary source and my initial exposure to it (in Kierkegaard's writing) in turn.
I've way overbiased towards forecasting and trying to plan over excessively long time horizons. Or maybe I'm not dynamic enough with updating the plan. I think there's too much compute and uncertainty though in the assumptions baked in. To ground this, an example is when I've tried to plan out a career.
There's also the concept of the soul of being made in the image of a God in Christianity. I've mostly conceptualized this as alluding to man's ability to reason. Things like planning and self awareness that animals don't really exhibit (at least to a degree that is categorically less as far as we observe).