“the world”

I really want to live a comfortable life when I grow up.  There, I said it.  I know it’s not what I should be wanting, at least not to the degree that I am wanting it, but more often than not, that’s what I want, period.

One of the things that continues to hammer on my heart these days is the passage about the seeds and the soils as well as the words of our Lord “what does it profit a man to gain the world but lose his soul?”  The common theme is obvious, the pleasures and cares of the world and their position and priority in our hearts.

The normal reading of the “pleasure’s of the world” usually bring up images like extravagant riches, beach house, nice car, yacht, gambling, loose-living, immorality, corruption, etc. right? At least for me.

I don’t normally think of a toyota camry with peeling paint, a 1 bed 1 bath apartment, a happy marriage, maybe some cute kids, an okay job, the occasional weekend adventure …

But you know, that’s the pleasures of the world.  And all of them can choke my life out.  I can’t believe it, but I can actually lose my soul pursuing those things.  Who would’ve thought being the average joe could kill you?

Maybe someday I will be living like that, an average joe life, and it won’t be bad either.  But for now, I’ve got to keep my mind on other things.

I  suppose it’s what you pursue that matters more than what you have. (hence 1 Tim 6:11-19)

school and kids

Sometimes it feels like being in school makes me a kid; like there is some sort of inherent property to education that implies immaturity or childishness in the student. It’s not true of course, I have seen thirty year olds walking the campus with back packs on and eighty year olds sitting in on my Religion lectures.

And yet, there’s something there that’s amiss. The usual conclusion is that school is just completely different from the real world. After all, most of us don’t deal with workplace dynamics, or the gamut of insurance plans (health, dental, car, etc), taxes and figuring out deductions and exemptions, paying mortgages, investing in time-shares, stocks, financial bonds, insurance bonds and mutual funds, credit ratings and automobile purchases, how about keeping up with diplomatic relations concerning our country, who is who in the house and in the senate, are we republican or democratic or something else? The list of things we suddenly need to know seems to go on forever…

But you know what, even so, I shouldn’t feel this way. That I am a kid because I don’t know these things front and back. Just because my current concerns fall under things like my DPR, GPA, Unit limit or managing a schedule conflict, being a student does not stunt the process of growing up. I have no excuses for being a kid. I used to think being an adult was all about externals and circumstance, thinking things like, “When you become an adult you start having to worry about this and that”, but you know, It’s not like that at all. Adulthood is a state of mind and a condition of the heart. How else can we be told, “gird up your loins like a man” if being a man was entirely dependent upon age?

A smart kid can play stocks, but he’s still a kid. A grown man can fail at understanding the differences between partnerships and common stock and he is no less of a man.

Maybe we’re trying to grow up in the wrong ways.

Redwall

If you haven’t read the Redwall series yet, you are seriously deprived. This is one of the best children’s fiction series ever. (Rivalring harry potter, and a distant second or third to Narnia) Every night I read a little bit, and it’s like eating a nibble of dark chocolate at the end of the day. Mice with swords, battle-scarred badgers with armor, big bad rats with long poison barbed tails, honor, glory, sacrificial brotherhood, and integrity. What more could you ask for in a good yarn?  I mean check out this awesome picture:

I have noticed that many people like to read novels in one sitting, what a terrible waste!  It is far better to savor them. In fact it makes the experience so much better, in reading bit by bit you allow the flavor to last longer. Would you wolf down a super rich slice of tiramisu? hopefully not! though I can see the temptation.  Reading in small portions also teaches you self control. You know, good things come to those who wait.

I think the people who just barrel through novels are the same people who usually eat dessert first…