As I have shared, this time in Soho, the West Village, and elsewhere in NYC has been a reminder of how much of our life energy is spent cultivating the surface image that we (and I) project to the world. That is, how much time and attention we (and I) am tempted to define myself externally, by what we wear and how we wear it, by our physical appearance and grooming, by our youthfulness, or our thinness.
If you're wondering why I am particularly sensitive to this there, I just spent a few months in rural Australia where I was living amongst regular folk: farmers, fisherman, miners, etc... In all credit to them, these are people who generally live in a simple and down to earth way, without a whole lot of fuss about what they look like, or that they keep up with the latest and greatest trends in fashion or technology. So, I traveled from the Outback to the cosmopolitan epicenter of materialism, advertising, and consumption. It is a little bit of a culture shock, as you can imagine. And while I have lived and worked in developing countries and found it challenging to re-enter the American context of conspicuous consumerism, I am finding myself more sensitive than I would have expected to the disparities of have's and have not's.
If I am honest, I have to acknowledge how powerful the urge is to be part of all of this is-- to be part of a fashionable in-crowd, to be connected to "important people," to have prestige, and influence. As Jesus and subsequently, the apostle Paul described this seductive desire... it is the way of the world that lays its claims on us, a way that is engineered to serve the personal and the collective ego-- promising relief for our needs for belonging, for recognition, for security. Sadly, we seldom stop to assess the cost of trying to satisfy these inner needs with external trappings... costs to ourselves and to our world. If I am sounding a bit disoriented and, if I am honest, at times a bit disgusted, I hope that you understand.
If I am not mistaken, there is a kind of insanity at stake in all this... the assumption being that unless we have the buying power to afford the exclusive luxuries of life, we'll never be satisfied, let alone happy. By extension, we not only spend an inordinate amount of time and energy fantasizing about the life we'd like to have, we idolize the celebrities we assume are actually living that life now. What is the cost? We fail to appreciate the beauty of what we have, to recognize the blessing of the life that we're living and the ordinary people and things in our lives.
Let's stop the insanity, why don't we? Please weigh in with your own thoughts, comments, and criticisms.
Posts
Possessions are a burden and a distraction. Our egos can push us far away from what really matters as we seek the "perfect" face we present to the world.. clothes, hairstyle, even eating the "right" foods at a trendy restaurant. We are all tempted, we are all guilty at times. The world that I live in, the jobs that I sometimes do, the places that I work in are sometimes not very pretty, and they certainly aren't "cool." After a while you develop the perspective that things are what they are, when you get right down to it, the only thing that matters is the people in your life and in the world. I don't blame you for having culture shock. I get the impression that you would have stayed with those good people, in that good place if you could have. That is understandable.
ReplyDelete