Note from Pastor Don

It was 2300 miles and instead of spending 30 hours behind the wheel, I chose 5 hours in the air. Because I can. Because it’s convenient. Because, well, it’s the Western thing to do. Ironically, it was a trip to a retreat weekend for Spiritual Directors at a Franciscan Renewal Center in Phoenix, Arizona.  A waiting Uber ride from the airport, of course, because, well . . . The tranquil setting at The Center sent every message but what was evident from the series of decisions I’d made to arrive ‘on time.’ One of my first sights on campus was a habit-clad monk pensively making his way to the Chapel. My registration materials were emblazoned with the weekend’s theme: EMBRACE.

Our guest speaker was a psychologist, Episcopal priest and Spiritual Director. Her emphasis was on the fullness of our humanity that was needed to be present for an embrace to speak of connection, of reassurance, of communicating belonging. More, she insisted, to speak of a hurried embrace was a cruel misnomer, the word’s antithesis. All this in her opening remarks in our first session! A message was being heard.

It became evident that we are the product of several hundred years of altered thinking. We were meant to thrive, to flourish, at a much slower pace. We were designed to look, to see, feel, to appreciate, all of which take time. But instead, we interpret, we judge, we calculate, we analyze. And all in the name of productivity, of efficiency, of getting the ‘job’ done.

Beauty in this scheme of ours is considered superfluous, things like the arts: painting, poetry, prose, music, seem of little use to the ‘job’ of living. It’s this point that should cause us to stop and re-evaluate. Is everything to be utilitarian?