Musings

Over the last few days I’ve been thinking a lot about the differences/chasms between the vision of the good life that I hold, and my values-in-action. I’ve been troubled by this since being here, and in some ways America has made me see myself in bas-relief. There are so many things that I think are important, that are SO very hard to live out – not only here, but especially here. I don’t take it lightly that one of the key differences for me, of course, is that here I am not properly a part of a community that is also thinking about these things. Both Andrew and the Wednesday-group at home serve as anchors for me in some ways relating to life-as-we-are-called-to-live-it.

So, I made a crude chart, and then immediately faced this issue: is the column called ‘alternative reality’ really reality as it is supposed to be? Which would mean that what I live in (and see as reality) is really a negative alternative reality?

Anyway, you may be able to see what I mean.

Alternative reality-----------------------------Reality
Living and working------------------------------Injustice and apathy,
for justice and compassion, liberation----------despair, involvement in systemic evil
Devout------------------------------------------Busy
Shalom------------------------------------------Dissonance
Significance in being---------------------------significance in doing
Loving people-----------------------------------Loving some people
In Christ---------------------------------------In the world
Walking-----------------------------------------Driving
Discipline and simplicity-----------------------Consumption
Outdoor, fresh air------------------------------Indoor, forced air
Alive-------------------------------------------Less than alive – Boring?
Community---------------------------------------Primarily anonymous
Rhythms of life---------------------------------Consumer seasons
Earthy -----------------------------------------Concrete
And so on…

Here are some other things I’ve been thinking about, the preacher on Sunday said this: The ‘American inability to delay gratification is robbing us of reality’ which I found really interesting, since I think in many ways it relates to my above list… and certainly relates to my life. And also, it touches on the lives of many around us who are in chronic [bad] debt. (I guess I’m differentiating between student/ mortgage and other debt here).

The area around seminary and HQ (where I am daily) is very poor. “Cash your pay check”, pawn shops, ‘thrift’ shops (a bit like Oxfam), and I am reminded about the urgent needs of a society that leaves its poorest on the shelf, in the back-street, and hidden away [this isn’t alien of course, the UK does this well]. One of the great ironies is just down the street from me – [I wish I had a camera and could use it!] There is a concrete sign, engraved with the following “Jesus of Nazareth says I am the Way, the truth and the life” and about two metres away it says “For sale by Zimmermann, for details ring…” Sad, but True! Jesus is moving out of down-town. Oh no, wait, perhaps he’s staying.

Watched “Little Miss Sunshine” with my grandpa ([un]fortunately he couldn’t hear everything) and grandma M. I still think that it has some of the most wonderful pastoral care scenes I’ve ever seen.

Read this about Wesley: "he began to order his Oxford days around a plan of study. On Mondays and Tuesdays, he read Greek and Roman history and literature; on Wednesdays,
logic and ethics; thursdays, Hebrew and Arabic; and Fridays Metaphysics and natural philosophy. On Saturdays he composed oratory and poetry, and on Sundays he studied divinity, primarily patrisctics. Still he somehow found time for extra-curricular interests in French and mathematics and experiments in optics..." Quite the undergrad, hey?

This is in the news today, oh my:

"LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair is lobbying the United States to consider locating part of its anti-missile system in Britain, his office said Friday."
Are there protests at home? Sometimes Misty's cafe is the meeting place for the Stop the War coalition, if anyone can check it out...

So… back to work.