Lenten Journey
Written by Derek Koehl
As I was contemplating this Lenten season within the current context of my life and the world around me, I came across the following views of Sandra Tsing Loh in an article in The Atlantic.
It will be interesting to see, now that the [financial] apocalypse has arrived, how various modes of American status-striving will be rejiggered, particularly those predicated on amassing large amounts of debt. […] Surely now the honestly eco-conscious will lead a bold return to—gasp!—tap water. (Because what’s worse for the environment than drinking water … out of plastic bottles … flown in from Fiji?) As Starbucks stores close around us, what’s more nostalgically amusing than Folgers Crystals? […] As Borders stores shutter, perhaps we’ll see a reflowering of public libraries. In any case, unable to secure those astronomical loans, more [of us] will have to start rubbing shoulders with The Other, living in truly mixed neighborhoods, next door to such noncreative types as Kohl’s-shopping back-office workers and actual not-yet-ready-for-their-close-up-in-Yoga-Journal immigrants. […]life will be all about the hearth, the candlelight, the guitar (and not a vintage Les Paul).
I hear in these words a description of a less consumer-oriented life—a life less defined by urban “affluent hipdom”. A simpler life often described within Journey as radical contentment and generosity (RCG).
This year, as with past years, I embrace Lenten season practices—one a putting down that daily calls my awareness towards Good Friday and the other a taking up that calls my attention outward toward those walking through life around me. I also determine a taking up that extends, far beyond this Lenten experience. I purpose to take up ever more of the RCG way in my life. Embodied in RCG are attitudes toward a way of thinking, acting, and relating that stands in contrast to the consumerist pull in whatever manifestation it appears. I purpose an orientation toward others and a posture of sharing rather than acquiring. In an ever more simple way of living I seek the space to contain expanding complexities in the relationships that I form with all the lives that surround me.
This is what I seek during this Lenten journey. As it draws to an end, having found in the seeking, I will stand in the twilight of Good Friday looking with hope not just toward the coming Easter sunrise, but also a continued better way of being.
As I was contemplating this Lenten season within the current context of my life and the world around me, I came across the following views of Sandra Tsing Loh in an article in The Atlantic.
It will be interesting to see, now that the [financial] apocalypse has arrived, how various modes of American status-striving will be rejiggered, particularly those predicated on amassing large amounts of debt. […] Surely now the honestly eco-conscious will lead a bold return to—gasp!—tap water. (Because what’s worse for the environment than drinking water … out of plastic bottles … flown in from Fiji?) As Starbucks stores close around us, what’s more nostalgically amusing than Folgers Crystals? […] As Borders stores shutter, perhaps we’ll see a reflowering of public libraries. In any case, unable to secure those astronomical loans, more [of us] will have to start rubbing shoulders with The Other, living in truly mixed neighborhoods, next door to such noncreative types as Kohl’s-shopping back-office workers and actual not-yet-ready-for-their-close-up-in-Yoga-Journal immigrants. […]life will be all about the hearth, the candlelight, the guitar (and not a vintage Les Paul).
I hear in these words a description of a less consumer-oriented life—a life less defined by urban “affluent hipdom”. A simpler life often described within Journey as radical contentment and generosity (RCG).
This year, as with past years, I embrace Lenten season practices—one a putting down that daily calls my awareness towards Good Friday and the other a taking up that calls my attention outward toward those walking through life around me. I also determine a taking up that extends, far beyond this Lenten experience. I purpose to take up ever more of the RCG way in my life. Embodied in RCG are attitudes toward a way of thinking, acting, and relating that stands in contrast to the consumerist pull in whatever manifestation it appears. I purpose an orientation toward others and a posture of sharing rather than acquiring. In an ever more simple way of living I seek the space to contain expanding complexities in the relationships that I form with all the lives that surround me.
This is what I seek during this Lenten journey. As it draws to an end, having found in the seeking, I will stand in the twilight of Good Friday looking with hope not just toward the coming Easter sunrise, but also a continued better way of being.
posted by Dale at 7:08 AM
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