Reflections for 10/5/10

"We've got to realize the world of stone huts is the only world you and I have ever known. We've paid a price for that inheritance. We can't reverse it. We're not going to live in thatch huts, and I'm not here to say we should. But we've got to know what we've given up to the so-called technological advances of this very sophisticated society. It's one reason why we are producing neurotic and psychotic people at such an unbelievable rate. Teen suicides, for example, doubled in the 1980's Crime in general has increased 500 percent since 1960! We've chosen security over solidarity in First World countries, Western Europe and North America. Jesus said you can't serve God and mammon. I'd say you can't see God very well if you spend too much time inside your stone house."(R.Rohr "Radical Grace" p.330)

Certainly my experience has been one of growing up in the 'burbs. I still live in the 'burbs. But even I have noticed a change in the world of the burbs from when I grew up to now.

Very rarely do neighbors know each other. We live in the cocoons of our houses. Central Air Conditioning has made going outside to cool off unnecessary. All the entertainment our children need is provided inside through TVs, the computer, or video games. To go outside and use their brains and create play is a lost art form.

Part of the problem does lie in our fears of what is happening outside the world of our control. Some of those fears may be founded but most are distorted and usually spread through the mediums that keep us locked up in our stone huts.

And while our connectivity makes us feel like we know more people, we've lost any sense of deep connection and respect for boundaries, ours and others.

The recent tragic suicide of the student at Rutgers should be a wake up call for all of us, about how technology is causing us to lose our sense of right and wrong. Where the value and respect for another person, the truly loving one's neighbor as oneself has been thrown out the window. As long as we stay secure in our own little huts, we'll continue to believe that actions do not actually have consequences, you can just hit restart and everything goes back to where it was.

I do think we need to get out more. To interact with other people and learn how to share our lives in ways that make sense for the greater good. Until we leave our stone cocoons, we will never really see the depth of other people or ourselves.

Blessings,
Ed