Are You Really Trapped?
Post a responseI had lunch recently with an business executive who went off about how crazy his life is. Both he and his wife are professionals, and the activities of their two kids are legion. I had to agree. His life is nuts.
I asked if he had ever considered taking a half day spiritual retreat once a quarter. He hadn’t. He asked, “What would I do for a half day?”
“Sleep,” I said. “The most spiritual thing you could do might be to get caught up on your sleep.”
“But what would I do when I awoke? You mean, I wouldn’t have a computer?”
He was incredulous.
The suburbs seem to produce a class a folks who feel trapped. Are we really trapped?
February 7th, 2006 at 1:47 pm
Dave
The book is terrific. I have recommended it often and continue to turn it ‘jacket out’ on every bookstore shelf I see.
I went to a dinner party at a friend’s house recently. It was in an offending suburb; I won’t give the name but the initials are Hinsdale. The women seated across the table from me (assigned seats) asked how my wife and I “GIVE our kids perspective.” She went on to say that they spent so much time trying to make their lives in Hinsdale that they didn’t leave town very often. My first thought was that I don’t rival Dr. Spock for giving child care advice. My second thought was how sad that she believed that even perspective was something a parent should engineer. Ministry and service seem to have been co-opted by the need to “give back”. To me that smacks of, “I’m better than …. so I will gain grace by going to a black tie.” When we remove the hierarchy we can just ‘live’ amongst each other and ‘be’ with each other. We can allow that to take place in Hinsdale as well as other places and the perspective of being connected to one another regardless of (blank) is all the perspective we need, I think.’
February 7th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Whew… great point … We don’t help our kids by “giving them perspective” as if it’s like getting them a tutor.
February 21st, 2006 at 1:45 pm
Amen…how can one give what one does not obtain?
February 21st, 2006 at 6:21 pm
When we were looking to move into one of the largest planned communities on the planet, people kept saying “You’ll never have to leave Highlands Ranch”. They couldn’t have said anything that would have scared me more. Communities like this, without so much as a government, a just a board of directors, have such an amazing power to homogenize us. It a bit like Stepford. Our church is focused on being missional. My daily prayer is to have a non-Christian in my life. Such a strange reality.