urban ku # 14 and a (related) tidbit
Dispite (or perhaps because of) a Roamin' Catholic grammar school childhood chocked full with choirboydom and altarboydom (to include the honorable position of Head of the Solemn-High-Mass, Funeral & Wedding Crew) - which might account for my ability to paddle a canoe non-stop for hours in the kneeling position - I am not a religious person, spiritual, yes - religious, no. More and more I find myself yearning for our culture to take a break from life 24/7 and to embrace a return to the concept/spirit - if not actual legislation - of Blue Laws.
Sunday is the core of our civilization, dedicated to thought and reverence. ~ Thoreau
posted by gravitas et nugalis at 12/17/2006 08:01:00 PM
2 Comments:
Mark,
People want to go faster and faster these days, not slow down! I have found that most people younger than me are so ego driven and outside of themselves to much that they are afraid to actually look inside themselves. Its all about the right clothes, the right job, the right car, etc. All that external stuff, but nothing about what's inside. Our society is so ego-based and self-centered in the wrong way. You see parents taking their kids on hikes around here and the kids have their iPods on and their cell phones with them. They don't know how to be quiet inside and just be. It is so sad. Their experience of nature is nothing but breathing hard and listening to their music as they climb the mountain. What about the bird song or the cricket chirp and the wind in the trees? That is music enough for my soul. I never take my iPod on a hike or canoe trip. I want to hear nature as intended. I want my monkey mind to shut up and be clear and quiet, not filled up with the voice and words of someone else plugged into my ears. I want to wake at a campsite at dawn to birdsong and leaves rustling in the breeze. Its as if people are forever trying to run away from quiet time. They will do anything not to sit and be still with themselves. Workaholics will bring work home. Kids will play videogames, listen to their music, surf the net, watch tv, etc. People these days don't know how to just be in stillness and quiet, so they don't know what to do with a day with no work, like the Sabbath/Sunday. Religion has no hold like it used to, so they fill their lives with something else. Most people don't feel the need to question their existence or God or sprituality. They don't think they are missing anything. They think they are happy if they just have the right car, the right job, etc. So they work harder and longer and faster to get the right car, the right clothes, the right house in the right neighborhood, etc. and it just goes round and round. Those of us who know how and want to look within and feel the need to search for God/Spirituality/Divinity (whatever you wish to call it) and can actually sit with oneself in stillness for any period of time (meditation comes to mind) with a clear mind feel a bit out of place in the great Rat Race. Well at least I do. I can't speak for anyone else. I don't want to run around trying to have the right car, the right clothes, the right hairstyle, etc. I just want to BE and have a day of rest and not be running around working all the time. Whatever happened to 9-5 anyway? I noticed that those aren't the normal work hours anymore either. I knew that the Army didn't work those hours, but now that I'm trying to get a civilian job, I thought I'd get to sleep in and get a 9-5 job. I guessed wrong! This is crazy! I see no reason to be running oneself ragged like this just for money! I don't want to exhaust myself just to pay bills. My life is too precious to waste. I read an article the other day about Tai Chi where the woman said her instructor told her that one should never expend more than 75% of your energy at one time, because it is like a battery and if you don't take the time to recharge it, you will drain it and when you do, you die! That is what we are doing, expending too much energy and not taking time to recharge it fully, so we are killing ourselves. I am all for a Sabbath day to recharge my battery. I don't want to kill mine too soon. Sorry for the long diatribe.
Hey Michelle...three cheers for diatribes! They are necessary for good mental health. I enjoyed yours!
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