It’s been a little while since I last visited here. There has been a lot happening. So, I want to take a minute to share a bit of it with you.
November was National Novel Writing Month. I decided that it was past time for me to write something. My dear old, gray haired Daddy used to say to me, “Son, you need to shit or get off the pot.” So, I shit. Or, rather, I took the opportunity to focus my energy on writing a novel. The goal of NaNoWriMo was to write 50,000 words over the course of one month. And, I’m happy to say that I DID IT!!!! Yay!!! While I met the goal of the challenge, it wasn’t until today that I actually finished the story. And, truth be told, it’s not great. In fact, it’s pretty bad. But, that’s not the point. The point is that I DID IT!!!! Yay!!! I created a lump of word clay that, hopefully, I’ll be able to mold and fashion into something worthwhile. That’s the aim of a first draft. Get words out there where they can be worked with. Now that I’ve done that, I’m going to put the story away to ferment for a couple weeks. I hope to start the editing process after the holidays.
Ah, yes…the Holidays. All I can say about that is Bah! Humbug! This is not the most wonderful time of the year for me. And, I know it’s not for a lot of other people as well. There are lots of reasons why people who grew up immersed in our Western winter holidays feel as I do. But, I’m not going to write a list. You know who you are and why you feel like you do. Hopefully, we’ll all get to January ready to pick up our lives in the New Year.
In recent months I’ve taken some time to re-evaluate some things. I was kind of forced into this by recent political events. I first noticed my anxiety and stress levels climbing during the Brett Kavanaugh debacle. I’m pretty sure that a more unqualified jurist could not be found. It was also clear that the will of the majority of citizens was that the Senate should have stopped the confirmation process and sent the nomination back to the White House for a new choice. Now, I know that some reading this may disagree with me. They may think that a majority of citizens did not feel this way. That’s ok. I really can’t concern myself with that. But, I will point to the recent mid-term elections as evidence for my case.
That brings me to another event that has been chasing peace away…the mid-terms. The divide in this nation, and I might add, around the world, is real, people. It seems that it’s far more important to win than to be right. Lies trump the truth. (See what I did there?) Partisanship takes precedent over the common good or the will of the people. I mean, look at what the GOP in Wisconsin just did to the incoming Dem. Governor and Attorney General. Don’t’know? Google it.
It seems that everywhere I turn I am faced with divisiveness and hatred. Xenophobia, homophobia, Islamophobia…it’s all fear, folks. Fear triggers the fight or flight reaction that has allowed us as a species to grow and thrive through a million years of evolution. But, if it is sustained, it causes real damage to one’s mind and body. Our Western culture, particularly in the U.S., has been running on high adrenaline for way too long.
It’s come to the point that I need to step back from things for my own health. I think ,also, in order to fulfill my own calling.
I have spent a lot of time reading,studying, and following news and events online and on television. Now, these things are not inherently bad. In fact, they are all beneficial in their own ways. And, I hope to continue them. However, there is a text recorded by one of the writers of the Gospels referring to folks who gave a tithe to the Jerusalem temple without fail. Yet, they neglected to do the good and right things when it came to justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Jesus told them that they should have not just focused on their giving. But, they should have done the one without neglecting the other. Well, in a way, I have done just that. I have been so focused on studying and sharing my thoughts and opinions that I have neglected the interior work that must be done by any person who would call him or herself a follower of Jesus. That interior work involves contemplation,meditation, and prayer. These practices helped to open my eyes many years ago to how wrong it is for people to get caught up in following a set of rules and calling that ‘christianity.’ It was in the quietness of ‘waiting on the Lord’ that God’s grace became my reality. So, I have begun to take the time I would have given to study in order to offer it to God in stillness. I trust that God will not reject that.
And, finally, I am going to make some changes regarding my online presence. This Sunday I intend to walk away from social media for a while. How long? I have no idea. Until God presses me to go back, I guess. What this will mean is that I will delete and deactivate every social media account I now have. Facebook, twitter, tumblr, Instagram…all of them.
“But,wait! How will we communicate with you? How will you share all of those priceless nuggets of wisdom that we’ve grown to know and love?”
Yeah, I hear ya. But, not to worry. I will continue to write and share here. My WordPress blog will be my primary avenue for online communication. You can follow it by selecting below. That way, you’ll get a notification whenever something new is posted. You can also use the comments to share your own thoughts and feelings with me. Note, I said ‘with me.’ That doesn’t mean that what you share will automatically be broadcast to anyone else. We can share it publicly if we want. Or, it can remain just between us.
You can share your e-mail address and we can communicate electronically. That way we can continue to stay in touch.
A better way, I think, would be to share postal addresses. Yes, I mean snail mail. Why? Well, it’s a far more personal and thoughtful way to communicate. It’s way too easy to give into the tyranny of the expedient with sound bytes and emojis doing our talking for us. Taking time to think about words and how they may impact another person is too important. Yet, daily we toss our responsibility away with our shallow interactions. As important as the electronic communities are for many, it’s important to remember that They Are Not Real! They exist in the ether of the World Wide Web. And, while that location is not a real place, it is a web. It can be as sticky as any spider’s. And, just as deadly.
So, what do you think? Have I lost it? Am I succumbing to that malady called ‘old age’? No, I don’t think so. But, somethings are becoming more important to me. Recently, I found a cache of old letters that one of my great-aunts had sent to my parents. As I read through these notes I was struck by how these words had transcended the years. I held, in my hands, thoughts that had been created in the mind of another human. She had taken the time to formulate specific ideas and articulate them on paper for one specific purpose. That purpose was not to gain followers or so that her brilliance could ‘go viral.’ No, she simply desired to touch another person’s heart with hers.
We have gained a hell of a lot with the technological advances that have been made. This is both good and wonderful.
But, perhaps we should not neglect the one at the expense of the other.
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