Buried in Celtic mythology is the story of a young man named Cuhulain.  Why Cuhulain?    He is a youth of great insight, courage, and vigor.  He leads, he conquers, he inspires.  He overcomes obstacles, he wins battles.  What's not to like?
     
     As I was discussing Cuhulain's story with a group of students last week, a number of them pointed to the numerous parallels between his acts and those of countless other heroes through the ages.  Quite true.  And that's the point.  Despite our many cultural differences, we human beings generally cluster around the same motifs of existence.  To use Friedrich Nietzsche's memorable words, "Ecce Homo":  behold the human!


     Sure, we can amass much evidence for the evolutionary development of the human race, and sure, we can proffer copious accounts of how humans have engendered, through various forms of emergent complexity and properties, personality, eccentricities, and the like.  Moreover, yes, we can affirm that we are as much creatures of divine activity as we are creatures of materiality, history, and being.
     
What we still experience difficulty understanding is something author Julia Kristeva pointed out many years ago:  humans have an insatiable desire to believe.  We may know who we are, but we still cannot decide why we are.