im reading through painted deserts right now. so far, it's entirely relevant to the cloud of things that ive been thinking about these past few months, so i guess credit is due to donald miller for making my thoughts more concrete in all of this.
theres this song by bloc party called uniform, and it's basically talking about how humans try so hard to distract themselves from being bored or feeling much of anything. i think that most people, most of their lives, are resisting the thought that their lives really are boring, monotonous, stressful, whatever. i mean, it really terrifies us. we are pushing so far against this. who wants to be boring? its one of the most evident things when youre looking for it that every single one of us are doing everything we can to find beauty in our lives by looking for love, listening to good music, enjoying our friends, etc. this isn't wrong, but i feel like we are... resisting something. if i were a writer i would call it The Great Resistance and you would read about it in your history book later on and it would probably talk a lot about pop culture and the united states, but i'm not a writer, so none of that will probably happen, but i want to know, what are we resisting, exactly?
why do you watch television? seriously, why? chances are, you'll say because you dont want to be bored. being bored is as bad as dying these days, it seems. we are always expecting something to feed us with entertainment. geez, its everywhere. i think it's pretty safe to say that we are entirely entertainment driven now. when did everyone decide to stop sitting on their front porches just to enjoy the day or to talk to a friend? are we just afraid of thinking? are we scared to venture out into our minds, cause we dont know what we'll find, be it a bad memory, a question we dont know the answer to, the thought that one day we might die? most kids come home from school and sit in front of the tv or computer, intently watching mtv or checking their myspaces. and they may do this all day until they have to do their homework or go to bed. its so insane! we are addicted to ourselves. addicted to entertainment. addicted to consumption.
maybe we should stop being afraid of what we'll find if we stop resisting thought. maybe that's where some sort of answer or truth is. in our minds. the only people that are ever going to change anything are the people who ask why over and over and over. i mean, even if you dont plan on changing the world, maybe in your own life you should walk into everything you do asking, "why do i do this?" so why do you work where you do? money? why do you want money? to buy alcohol on the weekends? why do you drink alcohol? for fun? so you wont be bored? i know thats not how it is for a lot of people, but thats how it is for some, and if you ask yourself that question, maybe you'll find a deeper understanding about what you're chasing in your life or where your focus is.
in through painted deserts, don and his friend paul hike to the bottom of the grand canyon, and realize before they did that, if you asked them what they wanted, they would say a boat, a car, a house, etc., but after they did the hike, all they wanted was a bowl of cereal. good food. simple as that. maybe theres something to that. maybe we were really meant to enjoy life as it is. to stop recreating it because we're bored with it, cause i know watching the sunrise is a thing ill remember, whereas watching date my mom is not something ill remember. [mtv is really pathetic, by the way.] simple living is finding beauty where you are, and sometimes you need to venture out, but beauty is everywhere. its inescapable. its out your front door. its in the woodwork of your house. its on your family's faces when theyre angry or happy or despondent. its really everywhere.
earlier i was sitting on my porch listening to mason jennings and drinking some water and i thought, man everything sure is beautiful. mason's voice; pure, clear, refreshing water; the weather; my dog dixie; how green the trees are. everything. its really beautiful. and in that moment i felt like i was really supposed to be where i was. that i didnt have a thing to worry about because everything's been put in my life for a reason. and maybe that reason is simply to make me say "this is beautiful" or to challenge me or to show me a little glimmer of God's love, but for whatever it is, im thankful for it. and maybe the people in my life that confuse me are there so i can try my best to understand. and maybe the loneliness ive been feeling for a while is there so ill appreciate the company of others that much more. and maybe sometimes i get too caught up in trying to know how to love the right way that i completely miss it when its right in front of my face. we were created to enjoy things, to appreciate the gifts of entertainment other people give us, but in my life, i hope i always choose the sunset over the television, the company of friends over the extra hour of sleep, the thunderstorm over hiding out in my basement. maybe we should just let God be our entertainer, with his stars and wind and cosmos. i think that's living a beautiful life. a life inspired.
steph
theres this song by bloc party called uniform, and it's basically talking about how humans try so hard to distract themselves from being bored or feeling much of anything. i think that most people, most of their lives, are resisting the thought that their lives really are boring, monotonous, stressful, whatever. i mean, it really terrifies us. we are pushing so far against this. who wants to be boring? its one of the most evident things when youre looking for it that every single one of us are doing everything we can to find beauty in our lives by looking for love, listening to good music, enjoying our friends, etc. this isn't wrong, but i feel like we are... resisting something. if i were a writer i would call it The Great Resistance and you would read about it in your history book later on and it would probably talk a lot about pop culture and the united states, but i'm not a writer, so none of that will probably happen, but i want to know, what are we resisting, exactly?
why do you watch television? seriously, why? chances are, you'll say because you dont want to be bored. being bored is as bad as dying these days, it seems. we are always expecting something to feed us with entertainment. geez, its everywhere. i think it's pretty safe to say that we are entirely entertainment driven now. when did everyone decide to stop sitting on their front porches just to enjoy the day or to talk to a friend? are we just afraid of thinking? are we scared to venture out into our minds, cause we dont know what we'll find, be it a bad memory, a question we dont know the answer to, the thought that one day we might die? most kids come home from school and sit in front of the tv or computer, intently watching mtv or checking their myspaces. and they may do this all day until they have to do their homework or go to bed. its so insane! we are addicted to ourselves. addicted to entertainment. addicted to consumption.
maybe we should stop being afraid of what we'll find if we stop resisting thought. maybe that's where some sort of answer or truth is. in our minds. the only people that are ever going to change anything are the people who ask why over and over and over. i mean, even if you dont plan on changing the world, maybe in your own life you should walk into everything you do asking, "why do i do this?" so why do you work where you do? money? why do you want money? to buy alcohol on the weekends? why do you drink alcohol? for fun? so you wont be bored? i know thats not how it is for a lot of people, but thats how it is for some, and if you ask yourself that question, maybe you'll find a deeper understanding about what you're chasing in your life or where your focus is.
in through painted deserts, don and his friend paul hike to the bottom of the grand canyon, and realize before they did that, if you asked them what they wanted, they would say a boat, a car, a house, etc., but after they did the hike, all they wanted was a bowl of cereal. good food. simple as that. maybe theres something to that. maybe we were really meant to enjoy life as it is. to stop recreating it because we're bored with it, cause i know watching the sunrise is a thing ill remember, whereas watching date my mom is not something ill remember. [mtv is really pathetic, by the way.] simple living is finding beauty where you are, and sometimes you need to venture out, but beauty is everywhere. its inescapable. its out your front door. its in the woodwork of your house. its on your family's faces when theyre angry or happy or despondent. its really everywhere.
earlier i was sitting on my porch listening to mason jennings and drinking some water and i thought, man everything sure is beautiful. mason's voice; pure, clear, refreshing water; the weather; my dog dixie; how green the trees are. everything. its really beautiful. and in that moment i felt like i was really supposed to be where i was. that i didnt have a thing to worry about because everything's been put in my life for a reason. and maybe that reason is simply to make me say "this is beautiful" or to challenge me or to show me a little glimmer of God's love, but for whatever it is, im thankful for it. and maybe the people in my life that confuse me are there so i can try my best to understand. and maybe the loneliness ive been feeling for a while is there so ill appreciate the company of others that much more. and maybe sometimes i get too caught up in trying to know how to love the right way that i completely miss it when its right in front of my face. we were created to enjoy things, to appreciate the gifts of entertainment other people give us, but in my life, i hope i always choose the sunset over the television, the company of friends over the extra hour of sleep, the thunderstorm over hiding out in my basement. maybe we should just let God be our entertainer, with his stars and wind and cosmos. i think that's living a beautiful life. a life inspired.
steph
5 comments:
our world IS beautiful and it's a shame that we can't appreciate that anymore. i love being outside and doing nothing. it doesn't bore me in the least. i'd rather be sitting outside with a friend just talking than inside watching tv. tv bores me. life does not. every single thing you just said is true and i wish more people could enjoy simplicity.
stephanie.
this is was beautiful and it truly inspired me.
i want to print this out and keep it to re-read. :)
i hope to see you really soon.
we have so much to talk about.
i love you.
sincerely,
heather joy purcell
what about watching a sunset on tv?
...ok that was dumb
Anyways, I think the only thing I can elaborate on is that MTV really is the stupidest thing on the planet and I totally agree with you. Lately I've been getting ansty, feeling like I need to leave too. I don't know what to do or why, but it's been growing in my mind. I get so tired of hanging around this town (good Counting Crows song) all the time and living my life here. I think adventure is a key element that we miss out on sometimes. That's one point that is in the book of Lord of the Rings that I like so much: one day you may step outside your door and you never know where you could be swept off to. I guess I'm hoping, and I'm sure you are too, that one day we'll step outside our house and get swept away into a story of our own. And when we return (if we do), then somehow we will be different and see things more clearly. I'm not only hoping, I'm going to be praying for it.
-Mathius
I really love that book. Donald Miller is such an amazing author. "Blue Like Jazz" is my favorite by him, maybe you can give that one a try next. This blog was ever so true...
Love, Logan
i think the problem is, as pointed out by tyler durden in chuck palahniuk's book fight club, that our generation really has no great depression.
at least not one that we are free to experience.
sure, we have the 9/11 and the war in iraq et cetera [and i feel somewhat strange trying to get something positive out of those things] but how much do we think about our great depressions in comparison to the people who lived before us, and did truly enjoy sitting out in the porch, smoking a cig and talking to a bud?
people have to try so hard to get even the slightest feel of what it is like to be at war, or in a starving country, or homeless. without the sour, the sweet ain't as sweet.
i think we would appreciate our beautiful lives a little bit more, if we were not so shielded from all the suffering in the world, like we are now.
and hey, maybe life wouldn't be so boring if we actually had motivation to help our fellow men and women and children and forrests and air.
our brains hunger for information in an ever increasing amount, but when jewish eye for the christian guy is available in 265 stations, and the world news in only 2 [and poor censored news at that] how can we hit rock bottom?
when it comes down to it, i just don't have a front porch. or a rocking chair.
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