"...'Thou mayest.' The American Standard translation orders men to triumph over sin . The King James translation makes a promise in 'Thou shalt,' meaning that men will surely triumph over sin. But (sic) the Hebrew word timshel—'Thou mayest'—that gives a choice. For if 'Thou mayest'—it is also true that 'Thou mayest not.' That makes a man great and that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win." (John Steinbeck)
The world is often interrupted in a dualistic perspective of right or wrong, science, religion, freewill, a god's will. The world seems to be defined by the thought that these terms must be mutually exclusive. As students of economics we explore truth in making assumptions, because we can control it. It is comforting to us that we can make graphs that illustrate what would happen if we make economic changes or make equations to help us forecast. These assumptions may help us construct our models for a pluralistic world and build equations but they fail to answer the questions that have forever been unanswerable. Deemed less important, perhaps due to their inherent complexity, literature and poetry are often never considered when trying to understand human behavior.
The works of John Steinbeck, and other great authors, remind us that people are more than just target markets and demographics. Authors create characters who do not always behave rationally; irrational can be fascinating, especially in literature. There is no such thing as just a villain or a hero; there is reason, purpose and passion behind each decision that cannot be measured. How can economics measure liberation, salvation, or morality? A fault of most who chose to study "hard science" often get lost in trying to find the answer in life. Literature forces us to ask questions. What is Free Will? Is it really free will if it is given to us? Does that mean it can be taken away?
That is why I love the word "timshel". It does not mean free will or a supreme being's will. It means we chose. In a word full of uncontrollable forces that we may never understand, we can control our intentions and actions. It forces us to confront that the liberation that we seek comes from the self. That as people we navigate through the unknown as best we can without knowing why we are here. We see logic as the truth and art as a distraction. Through Timshel we can believe in science without diminishing the concept of a god; moreover, we can study our regressions while understanding that rationality and irrationality are concepts constructed by our minds. We can still seek truth even when we it is elusive.
