"Westerner's have a mania for experience. Descartes said 'I think, therefore I am.' For us, it is 'I experience, therefore I am.' But I'm pretty much convinced experiences don't change people, realization does. I think of all the powerful experiences that I've had. But only when I taste my experiences enough so they become realizations, do I change. That takes time and space. Put time and space together and you have a new definition of silence." (R. Rohr "Radical Grace" p. 238-230)
On the 4th we headed home after 8 days of vacation. It was one filled with experiences. Niagra Falls, zip lining, baseball games, the Rock'n Roll Hall of fame. All will hopefully be cherished memories. But I also found the days with no planned activities, to be just as nourishing.
Most of our lives are constantly go, go. We program our children to be busy. What we create I believe are over stimulated, sleep deprived junkies. And most of us are the same way. It is almost as if we are convinced that the only time we shouldn't be doing is when we are asleep.
Maybe that's why we feel so shallow. Why we often are not sure who we are or what we want to be or do. So we fill every waking moment with some stimuli, hoping something will connect.
Perhaps a better way might be some time for reflection after the experience, did we truly learn anything, did we grow in some way? But many see and use experiences like a drug to get through life. Each one, no better than a sugar rush, often with nothing more than a crash a few moments later.
Blessings,
Ed
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