The Golden Age of Everything

"...Mary chose the better part.

    What is the better part? It is God, and consequently everything, but it is called the better part because it must be chosen; one does not receive everything as everything, that is not how one begins: one begins by choosing the better part, which is, nevertheless, everything."

Kierkegaard, The Journals

For one man, it may be his claim to his piece of frozen ground on an abandoned park in the middle of a city afraid of its own cold as he runs in the deep ruts in pitch black, or up a mountain in great hunger, only to find God's nourishment laid there for him in the Summer. For another man, it may be his claim both against the wind and for each piece of a map he turns down, inch by inch, as he fights the barren Ruta 3, each spot of shade a salvation, each sip of water an anointment against death, which for him would mean no more movement. For another man, it might be a small hill not really close to anything, but that he can call his own.

But none of these men 'received everything as everything." No, all of these men began "by choosing the better part, which is, nevertheless, everything."