| ECCLESIASTES |
| When Life Seems Senseless |
| A book for our time. |
| "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." 1:2 |
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| "In this world there are only two tragedies," said Oscar Wilde. "One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it." This paradoxical proverb has often proved true. Consider a larger-than-life character from the 20th century, a man named Howard Hughes. World's Richest Man At age 45 Hughes was one of the most glamorous men in America. He courted actresses, piloted exotic test aircraft, and worked on top-secret CIA contracts. He owned a string of hotels around the world, and even an airline - TWA - to carry him on global jaunts. Twenty years later, at age 65, Howard Hughes still had plenty of money - $2.3 billion, to be exact. But the world's richest man had become one of its most pathetic. He lived in small, dark rooms atop his hotels, without sun and without joy. He was unkempt: a scraggly beard had grown waist-length, his hair fell well down his back, and his fingernails were two inches long. His once-powerful six-foot-four frame had shrunk to about 100 pounds. This famous man spent most of his time watching movies over and over, with the same movie showing as many as 150 times. He lay naked in bed, deathly afraid of germs. Life held no meaning for him. Finally, emaciated and hooked on drugs, he died at age 67, for lack of a medical device his own company had helped to develop. A King's Charmed Life Howard Hughes is an extreme example of a syndrome that can afflict the rich and famous. His attitude toward life closely followed the thoughts of another successful man, a great king who ruled Israel long ago. This book, Ecclesiastes, |