Sometimes I feel like I can't even begin to think outside of my own experiences. When I try to answer this question I can't get any further than: What am I going to do after graduation? I need some money to get around, how can this happen? Or, will I ever receive the acceptance and love from the people that I want it from? A friend of mine recently described our lives using a storm/shelter metaphor. I could not escape this visual when trying to answer this question inspired by Brian McLaren.
There IS a storm raging. There are actually multiple storms going on in parallel. Injustices are everywhere, whether I realize them or not. It is hailing golf balls in Africa, a tornado is destroying lives in the Middle East, and hurricanes run rampant in the hearts of exploited workers in Mexico, China, Vietnam, and nearly every other labor intensive country on our planet. We don't even have to look beyond our own borders to see the injustices that take place. Cloudy skies can be seen hanging over New Orleans, most inner cities, and there are even storms going on in the lives of at least forty people here in Longmont.
But here I am, Chris Nicoletti, sitting in adequate shelter. I can hear the muffled patter of rain drops on the roof. Occasionally it gets a little chilly, so I take a couple of steps towards my consumeristic thermostat and turn up the temperature a little bit. It seems so hard for me to escape the brick and mortar which has been protecting me for the last twenty-one years.
I am jealous of people who continue to hurt, feel, and at the very least, are affected by the injustices going on in the world. I say that I am jealous, but I am also intrigued and intimidated by those who are aware of the weather. I have always been a person who accepts circumstance very quickly and effortlessly. What I mean is that I don't poke, prod and analyze. I simply accept it as reality and move on. What I am realizing however, is that by simply accepting the conditions which surround me I will never take a step outside to see what the weather is really doing. I am like the old man who sits in his living room, surrounded by panoramic windows, watching the weather channel. I am sitting on my butt surrounded by wealth, consumerism, subsidies and government policies. Don't get me wrong, I am very thankful for the shelter which has protected me, but it is important to get out of the house once in a while. If I continue to blindly accept, and essentially ignore, the conditions of this hurting world I will never feel the rain drops on my face. I will never feel the excitement that only the wind can bring. And, most importantly, I will never have an influence on my environment.
I hope that this blog and my journal are an effort to stop and analyze a little bit. I think conversations with my "skeptical" friends could rub off on me. My hope is that I can be braver than I currently am. Maybe then will I take a step outside and see what it really going on with the weather.
1 comment:
Hooray.
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