You are Here
Have you ever - on your way home from work or the grocery - been in such a state of mind (whether reverie or worry) - that you completely missed your exit and ended up in an unexpected place?
It is, I think, a common experience - and one that is both unnerving and slightly amusing.
Unfortunately, many of us have recently experienced this - and it was not amusing, but certainly unnerving.
I refer to the recent election of our 45th President, a rather large orange-colored exaggeration of a distorted cartoon character. (I cannot bring myself to actually type his name here, and so desecrate my blog…)
For those of you that know me well, you know that I am of that age when many men experience that thing known as a "mid-life crisis". I am glad to report that - although I certainly am/have/will experience this - I am quite experienced at navigating through it.
That experience was well earned in that I seem to have been in a mid-life crisis since the age of 19. You may smile - and I will smile with you (to a certain extent). But my smile is only half in jest. For I speak as much in honest sincerity as I do in jest.
Because as a freshman in college, I experienced that first upending, upheaval one does when learning that they have been lied to. And not just once or twice, but consistently.
As a naive young fool, I learned that all those adults I thought I could trust were themselves as much a fool as was I. The main difference is that teenagers are meant to be fools - while adults are expected to eventually grow out of the condition.
That initial shock to my system has been regular feature in my personal version of the TV Show "This is Us". I could list nearly ad infinitum the Sunday School Teachers, School Teachers, Role Models and Father Figures who have lied to me - some innocently and some deceitfully.
I have learned that the Black Preacher was correct when I heard him shout "God is good" - and the congregation responded "All the Time". But I also learned that my definition of "God" and "Good" and "All" was quite different than theirs.
In my 60th year, I can say and deeply believe that there is a god - or higher power - or Spirit In the Sky (thank you Norman Greenbaum). What I cannot say is what God wants - or intends - or what might be his end game.
And so I, and maybe you, often find myself at that place of disoriented bemusement where I realize I am not where I expected to be - and am not quite sure how I got here.
My February reading selection is the fine and life changing book I read over a decade ago - The Courage To Be by the German theologian, Paul Tillich. In the introduction there is this excerpt from George Orwell's essay, Pleasure Spots:
But for those of you who travel the road I have traveled or will - you will be familiar with all the sentiments to which I today refer.
We are such odd creatures - we humans. We are equal parts angel and demon. We are capable of the highest sacrifice and the most evil debauchery.
We are one moment patient and the next enraged. We - like a metronome - can go from one extreme to the other and many times suffer no evidence of harm. It is almost as if we were made for disorientation.
And yet, for every Hitler or Stalin that I can recount, I can usually also find the Churchill or Tolstoy that his risen to oppose the darkness.
For every Grand Marshall of the KKK, I can find the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was born to bring light into the darkness.
So, on this (for me at least) lazy Saturday morning, let me encourage you wherever you are. Whether you are exactly where you expected and planned, or whether you are lost on an unfamiliar road with people not of your choosing.
Having experienced such disorientation quite frequently in my life, I can only assure you that - once I've traveled down the road a bit further - more times that not I found that the road I thought chosen in error was - in fact - the right path all along.
So yes, you are here - and so am I. And whether by divine plan or human fallibility, the point is that many times one cannot distinguish between the two.
Right now, take heart. There are so many beautiful roads yet for us to travel. And we have no idea of the wonders that await us - just over the next hill or around the next bend.
Whistle in the dark, or sing We Shall Overcome if you must. Because, as long as you do not stop - as long as you keep moving - you will find these words from Churchill quite instructive -
Amen.
dg
2/4/2017
It is, I think, a common experience - and one that is both unnerving and slightly amusing.
Unfortunately, many of us have recently experienced this - and it was not amusing, but certainly unnerving.
I refer to the recent election of our 45th President, a rather large orange-colored exaggeration of a distorted cartoon character. (I cannot bring myself to actually type his name here, and so desecrate my blog…)
For those of you that know me well, you know that I am of that age when many men experience that thing known as a "mid-life crisis". I am glad to report that - although I certainly am/have/will experience this - I am quite experienced at navigating through it.
That experience was well earned in that I seem to have been in a mid-life crisis since the age of 19. You may smile - and I will smile with you (to a certain extent). But my smile is only half in jest. For I speak as much in honest sincerity as I do in jest.
Because as a freshman in college, I experienced that first upending, upheaval one does when learning that they have been lied to. And not just once or twice, but consistently.
As a naive young fool, I learned that all those adults I thought I could trust were themselves as much a fool as was I. The main difference is that teenagers are meant to be fools - while adults are expected to eventually grow out of the condition.
That initial shock to my system has been regular feature in my personal version of the TV Show "This is Us". I could list nearly ad infinitum the Sunday School Teachers, School Teachers, Role Models and Father Figures who have lied to me - some innocently and some deceitfully.
I have learned that the Black Preacher was correct when I heard him shout "God is good" - and the congregation responded "All the Time". But I also learned that my definition of "God" and "Good" and "All" was quite different than theirs.
In my 60th year, I can say and deeply believe that there is a god - or higher power - or Spirit In the Sky (thank you Norman Greenbaum). What I cannot say is what God wants - or intends - or what might be his end game.
And so I, and maybe you, often find myself at that place of disoriented bemusement where I realize I am not where I expected to be - and am not quite sure how I got here.
My February reading selection is the fine and life changing book I read over a decade ago - The Courage To Be by the German theologian, Paul Tillich. In the introduction there is this excerpt from George Orwell's essay, Pleasure Spots:
The lights must never go out The music must always play, Lest we should see where we are-- Lost in a haunted wood; Children afraid of the dark Who have never been happy or good.These days seem - at a minimum- to be quite Orwellian. So it seems right and proper that his words - whether in 1984 or Animal Farm - should be here to guide us through the darkness.
But for those of you who travel the road I have traveled or will - you will be familiar with all the sentiments to which I today refer.
We are such odd creatures - we humans. We are equal parts angel and demon. We are capable of the highest sacrifice and the most evil debauchery.
We are one moment patient and the next enraged. We - like a metronome - can go from one extreme to the other and many times suffer no evidence of harm. It is almost as if we were made for disorientation.
And yet, for every Hitler or Stalin that I can recount, I can usually also find the Churchill or Tolstoy that his risen to oppose the darkness.
For every Grand Marshall of the KKK, I can find the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was born to bring light into the darkness.
So, on this (for me at least) lazy Saturday morning, let me encourage you wherever you are. Whether you are exactly where you expected and planned, or whether you are lost on an unfamiliar road with people not of your choosing.
Having experienced such disorientation quite frequently in my life, I can only assure you that - once I've traveled down the road a bit further - more times that not I found that the road I thought chosen in error was - in fact - the right path all along.
So yes, you are here - and so am I. And whether by divine plan or human fallibility, the point is that many times one cannot distinguish between the two.
Right now, take heart. There are so many beautiful roads yet for us to travel. And we have no idea of the wonders that await us - just over the next hill or around the next bend.
Whistle in the dark, or sing We Shall Overcome if you must. Because, as long as you do not stop - as long as you keep moving - you will find these words from Churchill quite instructive -
When you going through Hell, Don't Stop. Keep Moving.
Amen.
dg
2/4/2017
Sent from my iPad
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