Frank Deford's Designation Of Bill Belichick As Coach Of The Century Calls To Mind Manichaism

Dear R,

To follow up on last night's conversation...

This morning, when I finally listened to Frank Deford's commentary on Bill Belichick, I realized it wasn't as good as I had hoped, nor was his assertion that Belichick ranks as "coach of the century" all it seemed to be.

Still, his commentary is worth hearing.

Bill Belichick: Love Him, Hate Him, But Don't Deny He's An Original

NOVEMBER 04, 2015

FRANK DEFORD

http://www.npr.org/2015/11/04/454291854/bill-belichick-love-him-hate-him-but-dont-deny-hes-an-original

In praising Bill Belichick -- even with his warts -- Deford exhibits the prudence-and-perspective sorely lacking in our black and white, highly-polarized world.

At the risk of embarking an unwelcome tangent, I will mention that "Manichean" is an excellent word to describe the nation's incivility. (Mark Twain said: "The difference between the right word and the nearly-right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.")

If you're unfamiliar with the word "Manichean," it derives from a third century Persian religious leader named Mani whose sect had a real chance of winning out over nascent Christianity. (Notably, Mani and the designated patriarch of Judaism, Christianity and Islam -- Abraham of Ur -- were both born in present day Iraq.)

Here are two dictionary definitions of "Manichean" followed by Wikipedia's article on Mani and his religion: 

http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/Manichean

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/manichean

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manichaeism

As a student of comparative religion, I think it critically important (and almost universally overlooked) that "the Manichean worldview" was a fundamental "pollutant" of Christianity and that its impact -- whether directly or indirectly -- continues to bias "Christianity" in the direction of repression, retribution and self-righteous contempt for "the other."

One of my five favorite quotations (by Trappist monk, Fr. Thomas Merton) touches upon this same matter:

"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice.  The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization.  We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal.  Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good.  The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”
  

"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton

More Merton Quotes

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/04/merton-best-imposed-as-norm-becomes.html

So... 

Many thanks to Frank Deford for presenting a comprehensive view of Belichick, "seeing" into account the whole man, not just partisan fragments.

In two hours I leave to see Danny's cross country team run in the state finals.

Very exciting!

Paz contigo,

Alan