Season 7. Episode 3
How to Study the Bible: Poetry
Bringing Us to Glory
David Gooding
Daily Readings for the Christian Journey
Articles
THE PROBLEM WITH AUTONOMY
Round about 2013 I became obsessed with Dr Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory. He featured heavily in every talk I gave that year. You may recall that there was one particular seat in Sheldon’s apartment that only he could use. “That is my spot” was a recurring motif in the sitcom. He once explained the importance of the seat like this: “That is my spot. In an ever-changing world, it is a simple point of consistency. If my life were expressed as a function in a four-dimensional Cartesian system, that spot, at the moment I first sat upon it, would be [0,0,0,0]”.
Sheldon’s spot represents an interesting idea. It’s the concept of a core resting place. Perhaps it represents the feeling of being home. I once spent a few days clearing out my study. At the bottom of a pile of old papers, I discovered an ancient love letter which I had written to my wife. Now do not be alarmed. I have no intention of releasing its contents into the public domain. But I will share with you the circumstances in which the letter was written.